The Vampire Detective
by xNiltiac
Summary: Kate, a 135 year old vampire, but looks to be only 17, meets Mick St.John, thus starting her job as his assistant private investigator & her life suddenly becomes alot more complicated, if that's even possible. R&R please!
1. Chapter 1

**I hope you like this! It kinda came outta nowhere and it's just an idea, so please read and review, tell me what you think!**

I walked down the streets of L.A., completely comfortable being outside in the middle of the night. You're probably thinking: Are you crazy?! Middle of the night? In L.A.! _Alone?!_ Well, you can chill out. Nobody would _dare _try to hurt me. I may look like I'm only 17 years old, but in actuality I'm 135 years old, my strength is one hundred times better than any man, I can hear a conversation taking place several blocks away, I can come from being 1 mile away from you to being right in your face before you could even blink, and not to mention my olfactory senses are extraordinarily exceptional. If you haven't caught on yet, I'm a vampire.

I couldn't help but notice the night was surprisingly silent. Nobody at all was out on the street, well except the drunk homeless man staggering towards an alley, but he doesn't count. The only sounds I heard were the cars that passed by every once in awhile only to disappear seconds later and the light footsteps behind me... wait. Footsteps? I whirled around with inhuman speed to see... nothing. The sidewalk was empty except for a few bits of trash here and there. I paused for a moment and carried on walking more cautiously than before. I couldn't seem to shake the feeling of being watched...

When I arrived at my destination I was greeted by police cars parked outside of my building, red and blue lights flashing. I entered the building and saw a dozen or more cops walking around a crime scene, questioning tenants, and so on. I sniffed the air and instantly smelled blood. I walked up the stairs to the second floor and found the source. A body was lying half-way down the hall. Of course it _had_ to be near the door to my apartment. Great.

A man was standing near the body examining it. He was moderately tall with brown wavy hair and blue eyes. He was wearing a black button-up shirt and jeans along with a long black coat. He wasn't too bad looking either. I walked closer to the body and the man and raised my eyebrows at the sight. The body was female, probably in her twenties and on her neck was a bite mark, from a vampire obviously. The man, I noticed, was also looking at the bite mark. He sighed and turned to leave and ran into me. I sensed something about him, _he's a vampire_.

"Oh, sorry," He said after bumping into me.

"It's okay... who are you?" I asked suspiciously.

"Mick St. John," He replied and held his credentials up for me to see, "Private Investigator, and you are...?" I could tell he knew I was a vampire.

"Jackson... Kate Jackson," I said with a smirk, "A PI, huh? Pretty cool."

He nodded, "Yeah I guess," He said, "But sometimes, not so much."

I'm a naturally curious person, so usually I would be asking lots of questions about the dead girl lying not a foot away, but I was tired, "It was nice talking to you, er, sort of, but I'd like to get to my apartment now if you could step aside please."

"Do you live alone?"He asked all of a sudden.

"Yes,"I answered suspiciously,"Why?"

"Well you're still a teenager, don't you need someone to look after you?" He asked innocently, though I knew there was some other reason he asked that question in particular. Suddenly becoming wary, I braced myself for anything this vamp intended to do to me.

"I think I can take care of myself, thanks," I said a little sarcastically.

He didn't respond, he stared at something over my shoulder, I could tell his thoughts were somewhere else entirely. I coughed loudly trying to recapture his attention.

He studied me for a moment, "Do you think you would interested in being a PI?" he asked, I nodded uncertainly. "How would you like to be my assistant then?"

I didn't know if I could trust him, but for some unknown reason I accepted anyways, "Um, Sure."

He handed me a business card with an address and phone number on it,"Here's my address, stop by tomorrow and we'll get started on your first case."

I nodded and smiled,"See ya later." I said then slid past him and entered my apartment.

I walked into my living room,which consisted of a couch, a coffee table I got about 50 years ago, an armchair, and some minor decorations,and threw my school stuff onto the couch and sunk into my armchair. I was confused about something, why had this Mick St. John guy hired me as his assistant all of a sudden. It's weird, like he's trying to keep an eye on me or something. Why? I'll have to ask him tomorrow for sure. With that, I reluctantly rose out of my chair.

I was tired and decided I'd get some sleep soon, but first things first, I was hungry. Unlike most vampires, I don't like my blood fresh. I'd rather not sink my teeth into some unsuspecting victim every time I was hungry, thank you. I walked over to my fridge and took out a bag of blood and drank it all quickly, then walked into my bedroom and changed into pajamas, after that I went into the bathroom to brush my teeth, I stared into the mirror for a second at my reflection. My black hair flowing past my shoulders, my dark blue eyes, and my face, I bared my teeth, fangs extended. I turned away from the mirror and off to my freezer I went.

**Reviewing would be nice! Please and thank you!**


	2. Chapter 2

** Here it is, chapter two.Thank you soo much for reviewing,**** Im truly grateful. I brought Beth in the story for you, I'm not sure about Josef though. I want to bring him in to my story, but I can't think of a reason to.**

I woke up in the morning feeling exhausted for some reason, and not to mention hungry. I lifted the freezer door and glanced at my clock and did a double take, 11:04 a.m.! I'm late for school - wait...false alarm. It's Saturday. I got out of my freezer, got dressed, and went into the kitchen to satisfy my hunger. After I finished I grabbed my coat and sunglasses and headed out the door.

I decided I'd take a cab to Mick's place. I checked the address on the card he handed me yesterday and informed the cabbie. As he drove along I stared out the window at the people on the sidewalk, and I saw a man.I did a double take, second one of the day, my neck was starting to hurt...anyways, I could've sworn he was staring _right _at me. Timed seemed to slow down as the cab passed him. I couldn't make out any of his physical features, he was wearing a baseball cap,sunglasses,and a coat. The cab ran over a bump in the road and I hit my head on the window hard. Ouch. The momentary slowing of time ended and when I looked back to where that man was standing, he was gone.

Suddenly the cab stopped,"We're here Miss."the cabbie announced. I climbed out of the cab and paid the cabbie as I did. I walked up to the building the cab had dropped me off at and entered quickly. Soon I found myself on the floor of Mick's apartment, knocking on his door. The door soon opened, and standing in front of me was Mick St. John, Private Investigator. He was wearing a dark gray shirt and blue jeans.

"Come in." He said opening the door wide enough for me to slip in. I looked around taking in my surroundings. The furniture was tasteful. He had various decorations around his home. All in all it looked pretty nice. Also, on one of his couches sat a blond-haired woman.

"Hi, I'm Beth,"said the woman who's name, apparently, was Beth. She rose and held out her hand to shake. I took it and Mick said from behind me,"Beth, this is Kate Jackson, my new assistant."

"Nice to meet you."I said politely. I could scent the smallest, barely detectable amount of fear in her. Obviously, she knew what exactly I was. I turned to Mick and raised an eyebrow. Getting the message, he half-smiled and shrugged as if to say,_I have my reasons._ I nodded and faced both of them. Beth looked a bit confused and stared at them for a second, she just shook her head and began to speak.

"I'm a reporter from Buzz Wire. I'll be helping you guys with your case."she said matter-of-factly.

"OK, sounds good, speaking of this case, what is it? The 'murder' that took place at my apartment building?"I asked curiously, I was anxious to start investigating a case.

Mick nodded,"Yep, the girl's parents hired me to find out who did that to their daughter. They're not very confident that the police will figure it out."

"OK, then we know where to start. Right outside my door!"I said grinning from excitement and added,"Let's go!!"

Mick and Beth seemed to be amused by my eagerness to get started, they were smiling at me trying not to laugh, I rolled my eyes and started out the door, with them following close behind.

Soon we were standing where the body had been yesterday. A little blood still stained the floor. I inhaled as Mick did the same, Beth stood aside watching.

_A girl was running up the stairs followed closely by a insane vampire, with white eyes and sharp fangs extended. _

_She made it right up to my apartment before the vamp jumped her and bit into her neck. He drained her of most of her blood, the rest pooled around her head._

The vision lasted only 5 seconds. The vampire in it looked crazy and out of control, _feral_. I felt myself vamp out just from thinking about it.

"Did you see that?" I asked looking at Mick, getting control of myself.

He nodded, also recovering from the vision,"He was feral."was all he said.

"Like I didn't figure that out."I replied smartly. Mick glared at me.

Beth spoke up,"What did you see?"

Mick described it to her. Beth thought for a moment,"This doesn't really lead us anywhere."

"Well not yet, we've gotta track that vampire."I said.

I sniffed the air and caught the faintest scent of a vampire with blood on him.I followed the trail which led outside, to the left, and into an alley. The scent was stale so he wasn't here anymore. I couldn't pick up any traces of him from here.

"The trail ends here," I announced.

"Let's just look around then." answered Mick.

The three of us started to search the alley thoroughly. It was pretty narrow occupied only by a fire escape, a couple of dumpsters, and rats. Suddenly I spotted something out of the corner of my eye. A wallet.

"Here, guys, I found something."I said as I reached down and picked up the wallet. I opened it, it was empty."It's empty." I said voicing my observation.

Beth reached out her hand,"Can I see?"

I handed it over to her. She searched through all its little pockets. She managed to find a business card. On it was a name of a company, a phone number, and an address.

"This could help a bit."She said pointing to the address on the card.

"Yep."Mick said, took the card, glanced at it and put it into his coat pocket."Let's go see if we can find this feral vampire before he feasts on anymore innocents."

I snorted with laughter when Mick said this. If this were a TV show, this is where dramatic music would play and then cut to commercial.

** Sorry I had to cut it short, I'm up writing a little late.I will now reduce myself to begging pathetically for reviews.PLEASE REVIEW!!! PLEEEEASE!!!! **


	3. Chapter 3

**Thanks for reviewing! Oh and ****ErisFury**** I honestly did not know that name had been used for someone already,I never watched Charlie's Angels..lol**

We pulled up in Mick's car in the front of a small office building. Mick glanced at the business card Beth found in the wallet,"This is the place."he announced.

"What exactly are we looking for here?"I asked.

"Well we need to find out who the vampire is, and places he would go so we can find him." Beth answered.

I said,"OK, let's go then." The three of us walked into the building. The inside was nice, the floor was made of white marble. The lobby was decorated with various plants and paintings. To the left was a few benches, and to the right was a large desk, where a big man in a suit sat. Mick approached the desk to get information from the man.

"May I help you, sir?" The man asked.

"Do you have any employees working here that have been missing, maybe a couple of days?" Mick asked.

The man thought for a moment and replied,"Yes...Jack Garland hasn't come in to work for about 3 days..why?"

Mick held up his credentials,"I'm a private investigator, I'm working on a case that involves him...can you give me his address?"

The man gave Mick the address and we left quickly back to Mick's car.

"Do you really think he'd be at home?" I asked as I got into the car.

"Maybe...you never know," he said shrugging.

He started the car and drove away from the office building and perhaps toward the vampire we're after.

Soon we found ourselves in front a two-story house. It was yellow with a porch that took up the whole front of the house. I got out of the car and we walked up to the door to the house. Beth rang the doorbell. A minute later, I could hear the door unlocking from the inside. A short woman with brown hair and blue eyes wearing a green dress opened the door smiling.

"Hi. Can I help you with something?" she said politely.

"Does a Jack Garland live here?" Beth asked.

The woman's smile faded,"Yes, thats my husband...he's been missing for three days..." she answered sadly.

"Have you reported his absence to the police?" I asked curiously.

She shook her head,"We had an argument before he left for work...I figured he just wanted to get away for awhile. Did something happen to him? Is he OK?"

"I don't know...do you know any places he would go besides work or home?" Mick asked.

"I'm not sure..."she paused,"he has this friend Larry, he goes to his house all the time when we have a fight...does that help any?"

"Maybe.."Mick answered," Well I guess we'll go now, thanks."

She nodded and closed the door. We walked once again to Mick's car and drove away to see if the feral vampire is feasting on poor Larry.

-----

After Mrs.Garland closed the door she walked into the kitchen to finish cooking dinner. Her 4-year-old son was sitting at the table coloring a picture of something, she couldn't really make out what it was. She stood over the stove stirring the spaghetti sauce when she heard a crash coming from upstairs.

"Stay here,"she commanded her son and ran upstairs.

She walked down the hallway opening every door checking each room. She reached the bedroom door and opened it coming face to face with Jack Garland...except he was barely recognizable. He was still in his suit from work, his jacket was missing and his shirt was ripped up, he was covered in blood, worst of all his eyes were almost white colored and his teeth...were those fangs?

She stared at him, he was making a sound deep in his throat like he was growling.."Jack?"

Suddenly he lunged at her. He tore up her face and sunk his fangs into her neck, sucking all the blood out of her.

"Daddy?"came a small voice at the foot of the stairs. He abandoned his wife's body and attacked his small son. The boy screamed and tried to run, but his little legs didn't get him far before the feral vampire jumped on him and planted his fangs into the child's neck.

-----

Mick,Beth,and I walked out of the apartment building where Larry lives. Jack wasn't there, Larry said he hadn't seen him in awhile either.

Mick sighed,"Where else are we supposed to look?"

I shrugged. Beth answered though,"Maybe his wife has remembered something else, we should go back, just in case."

"OK, you're probably right, you are so smart Beth,"Mick said smiling," I don't know what we'd do without you."

Beth smiled.

"OK you two lovebirds,"I said teasingly,"can we go now?"

They both blushed and Mick answered,"Sure, c'mon."

When we got back the house was exactly the same...except a window was broken, on the second story. When Mick saw that he started to run towards the house, Beth and I followed quickly. Mick was about to kick the door down, but before he could I ran up to the door and opened it,"It's unlocked you idiot." I said and smirked.

"Oh.."he said and resumed running into the house. We entered the kitchen, spaghetti was cooking on the stove and a picture of..well something that a little kid drew was sitting on the table. No one was there. We checked all the rooms downstairs and didn't see anybody so we started upstairs, I was in front going up the stairs and first to spot the ripped up body of a little boy near the top of the stairs. I gasped and Mick asked from behind me,"What is it?"

I climbed the rest of the stairs stepping out of the way so they could see. Beth put her hand over her mouth and gasped, Mick stared with a grim face. He walked past the body farther down the hall and found the body of Mrs.Garland.

"We were too late.."he said sadly.

"If only we would have come a few minutes earlier or stayed longer..." Beth said her voice trailing off.

She walked into the bedroom...and screamed. She flew back out of the door and hit the opposite wall thrown by some unseen person and out of the bedroom walked Jack Garland.

**I was gonna make this longer but I wanted to stop here so there could be a cliffie :) hehe. Ok now please please please review! **


	4. Chapter 4

**OK, heres the 4th chapter! I've got no reviews for my last chapter :( sniffle**

His eyes were the vampiric white and filled with no emotion, just hunger. To be honest, I was a bit frightened of him. He looked like he wanted to tear someone to pieces and devour them. He paused for only a few seconds to choose his prey. His eyes fell on Beth who was huddled against the wall eyes wide, easy prey.

The feral vampire lunged at Beth. Mick intercepted him with inhuman speed. They fell to the ground rolling over each other into the bedroom. I ran to help. When I entered the room Mick was thrown against a wall hard. I leaped onto the vampire and knocked him down. He quickly got up and jumped towards me aiming for my neck with his mouth open. I stepped to the side and something crunched under my feet. I looked down quickly to see large pieces of glass scattered on the floor. Perfect. I grabbed an especially large and sharp piece and held it like a knife facing the other vamp. As soon as I turned around he charged at me, I quickly side-stepped, got behind him, grabbed him and sliced his head clean off. The head rolled away. His body stayed standing for a moment then fell to the ground, which kinda creeped me out.

Mick got up from the floor,"Nice."was all he said then went to check on Beth.

I followed him out of the room. Beth was sitting against the wall holding her left arm.

"Are you OK?" Mick asked, clearly concerned.

She started to nod her, but quickly shook it instead,"My arm...I think it's broken."

"C'mon, We'll get you to the doctor." Mick said helping her up, being careful of her arm.

After Mick called the Cleaner they left for the doctor. Once the doctor had put a cast on it he said,"Your arm is broken in 3 places Miss Turner, how did you say this happened?"

"I tripped on a curb and fell..."she lied.

I smiled at the doctor,"Yeah, she's very clumsy, we probably need to go ahead and put her in a wheel chair,"I teased. Beth turned to glare at me and I just smiled innocently.

We arrived back at Mick's apartment exhausted from our long day.

"Drinks?"Mick asked us.We nodded. He poured two glasses of blood and a glass of water.

I finally let out a long sigh I'd been holding in awhile now,"I'm glad that's over."

"What? I thought you've always wanted to be a private investigator?" Mick said smirking.

I glared at him,"I didn't say it wasn't fun." I answered grinning.

He smiled and turned to Beth who had been sitting quietly lost in her own thoughts,"Beth, how's your arm?" he asked attempting to bring her into the conversation.

She looked up at him and smiled,"It could be worse."

We all laughed a little. Suddenly I heard the door unlocking. Seconds later in walked a vampire with light-colored hair and wearing an expensive business suit. We all stared at him, and he stopped in his tracks, staring back.

"What? Having a party without me, Mick?"he said sarcastically.

Mick just turned to me and said,"Kate this is Josef, Josef meet my assistant Kate."

"Nice to meet you,"he said and added,"You're very pretty."

I extended my fangs and growled at him

"Feisty."commented Josef smirking.

I rolled my eyes,"Is there a reason you're here?" I asked.

"I can't come over to my best friends place just to hang out?"he asked innocently.

"What do you want Josef?"Mick demanded.

"I just wanted to know if you knew anything about all the deaths caused by vampires lately." He replied.

"That was partly the case we just closed, they were caused by a feral vamp named Jack Garland. Thanks to her,"he said pointing at me,"he's dead now."

"Pretty _and_ a good fighter, Mick she's a keeper." Josef said grinning. He walked over to Mick's kitchen and poured himself a glass of blood and came over to sit next to Mick on the couch.

I looked over at Beth wondering why she wasn't talking, she was asleep. She must have been more tired than I thought. I nudged her. Her eyes opened quickly and she sat up and yawned, noticing Josef.

"Hey...when'd you get here?" she asked sleepily.

Josef checked his watch,"5 minutes ago."

"I think I'll go guys, I'm tired." she said,"Bye."

She got up and left after everyone said their good-byes and I was left alone with Mick and Josef. We talked for a long time about random things. Finally Josef left to go back home after getting a call about something to do with work and Mick and I were the only two left. I remembered I was going to ask him something.

"Mick,"I said shortly after Josef left,"Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure, what is it?" he asked.

"How come you hired me as your assistant even though you just met me?" I asked curiously.

He thought for a moment and began speaking,"Well, when I bumped into to you I noticed someone standing farther off down the hall watching you. He had been following you I'm sure. He was a vampire, and older vampire. he looked like he intended to kill you, or capture you. You can't fight him and win, not alone atleast, so I decided to make you my assistant so I could look after you."

I took this all in slowly. A vampire? Following me? Why? And why hadn't I noticed him? What did I do to make myself a target of someone else? A million questions ran through my head,"But you dont even know me." I said.

"So? Are you saying I should have let that vampire have you just because I don't know you?" He asked

"Well...Why didn't you tell me, Mick?" I demanded.

"I didn't want to make you turn around and confront him, and possibly provoke him to attack you."he replied.

I nodded in understanding. Thats probably exactly what would happen. Through the window I saw the sun peaking barely over the buildings,"I better go. Call me when you get a new case Mick,"I said, gave him my number and walked out of his apartment.

I decided I'd walk home. Mick actually didn't live too far away from me. I put on my sunglasses as the rays of the sun started to light the sky. I looked over my shoulder multiple times. Now that I had the knowledge of a stalker, I became more cautious. Suddenly the feeling of being watched swept over me. A minute later I was grabbed by a very strong hand and thrown down. No one was on the streets yet, so nobody witnessed the attack. I got up quickly and whirled around to face a very imposing vampire standing a few yards away from me.

**OK, it's short again sorry, but heres the deal. If you want the chapters to be longer that means slower updates. So review and tell me if you want longer chapters & slower updates or shorter chapters & faster updates.**

**Thanks for reading! please review!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Sorry I havn't updated in awhile, I had writers block. Don't expect too much from this chapter. I hope it's not too boring, enjoy!**

The first thing I noticed about this vampire was that he was old, really old. I could feel the power coming off of him in strong vibes. He was wearing a coat sort of like Mick's and black dress pants, he was a little over six feet and his hair was jet black. Mick is right, I can't beat this guy. But I sure can try.

I quickly got to my feet and glared at the vampire. I sprinted towards him, but he easily dodged.

Next thing I know, I'm pinned to the wall of Mick's apartment building, the impact with the wall broke bones. I didn't even see him move, not even a blur. He was quick, alot quicker then me. I struggled desperately to get away,with no prevail. OK, plan B.

"MICK!!!"I screamed at the top of my lungs, which was probably unnecassary with Mick's vampire hearing and all.

The old vampire snarled at me,"I'll get you next time." he growled and reluctantly let me go, ran down the street and turned into an alley, out of sight. I let out a relieved breath and walked away from the wall. At that exact moment Mick ran out of the door and towards me.

"What is it?"he asked looking around,"Are you alright?"

"Y-yeah I'm good."I replied, a little shaken up by the speed and strength of the vampire.

He looked me up and down,"What happened?"

"A vampire - an _old_vampire attacked me."I answered.

"This is not good. You can stay with me tonight, just in case he decides to attack again." he suggested. I really wanted to go home, but I nodded anyways. He led me back up to his apartment and I settled on his couch while he poured me a glass of blood. I thanked him and he went out, got lots of ice, and filled his bathtub with it on account that he didn't have but one freezer to sleep in.

"Good night Mick and thanks." I said as I walked up the stairs, tired and ready to sleep in my temporary bed of ice.

"'Night, it's no problem."He said.

I smiled and walked into his bathroom, shut the door, and shed my clothes. I slipped into the bathtub, I have to admit it wasnt as comfortable as my freezer, but I'll live...well...you know what I mean.

I didn't wake up until 8:00 at night. With my excellent hearing, I could hear voices downstairs. I rose from the tub and put on my clothes.

"...I don't know why, Beth, I've seen him three times before, following her." I heard Mick say. By her I think he meant me.

"Do you think he wants to kill her?"Beth asked,at the same time I walked down the stairs and plopped onto the couch next to her.

"I think if he wanted to kill me, he would have been able to in seconds."I said,"He was powerful."

Beth thought for a moment,"Why didn't he then?"

"Good question."I said and looked at Mick,"Got any new cases?"

"Yes, a young man was murdered."he said and added,"and this time not by a vampire.His name is Henry Shelton. He was found in his apartment, stabbed repeatedly. There was no weapon, no prints, no evidence, and so far, no motive."

"Sounds like a tough one...can't wait to get started on it!" I exclaimed smiling. I was glad I had something to keep my mind off of the creepy vampire stalker.

We arrived at the scene of the crime an hour after our conversation. It was in a ten-story apartment building, the murder was on the 8th floor. When the elevator we rode in opened on the right floor we saw lots of cops and curious tenants standing around. We walked towards the door to the apartment, Mick showed the cop keeping him from going in his credentials and we walked in. There was one word to describe this guy's living space: messy. There was clothes, trash, and other various items lying around. On the floor next to the couch was a body. The man looked to be about 23 - 24 maybe. He was obviously stabbed many times, like Mick said. His cell phone was lying next to him, failed attempt to call 911. Mick and I walked over to examine the body while Beth stood back and watched.

"I really don't see anything to go on here Mick." I said looking at the body.

Mick crouched down, inspecting the dead body closer, he then plucked something from the man's shirt,"Look, a hair."

He held up a dark-colored hair that looked to be the man's,"Nice, Mick, very helpful. What else is there...oh look...some lint!" I said sarcastically.

"No,"he said seriously,"His hair his brown, this hair..."he held it closer to my face,"is black."

**OK, there it is. :p please review and tell me how I'm doing with writing this story.**


	6. Chapter 6

**I need reviews please! Nobody new has reviewed me yet, it's kind of dissapointing,anyways heres chapter 6!**

I inspected it closer. It indeed was a black hair. "Oh."

"I know someone who can help with that."said Beth from behind us.

Mick smiled,"Of course you do, do you ever not?"

Beth answered with a grin,"Nope."

They stood smiling, looking at each other like they were talking with their eyes or something. I rolled my eyes, they do this _all the time_. They have these moments where it's like no one else is around and it's just the two of them and they _still _havn't told eachother how they feel, I know they love each other, I can see it in their eyes, whats holding them back?

"Sooo, can we go see this person now, or do you wanna sit here staring at each other all day?"I asked sounding annoyed. I know I seem irritated, but I guess I'm just jealous...

"Huh?Oh yeah we can go."Mick said tearing his eyes away from Beth and dropping the hair into an evidence bag.

"The guys name is Chris, I've met him doing a report once, he analyzes DNA and finds out who it belongs to." Beth said while we walked down the hall to the elevator. She and Mick reached for the lobby button at the same time and touched hands, they froze and looked at each other, doing that weird staring thing again, now it was really getting annoying, I coughed loudly.

Suddenly Mick came to his senses and moved his hand,"Heh, sorry..." He muttered averting his gaze away from her eyes and blushing a little.

Beth just pushed the button and smiled at him and looked away also blushing.

When we arrived at the large building where Chris works, Beth led us to the 4th floor and into a small lab where a young guy about 26 years old sat on a stool looking into a high-tech microscope and taking notes on a piece of paper.

"Hey Chris." Beth greeted. The guy turned around and smiled.

"Hi Beth, How can I help you today?"he asked cheerfully.

"Well this is Mick, he's a PI and this is his assistant Kate, we're working on a case and found a hair,"Beth explained," Do you think you could find out who it belongs to?"

"Well of course I can." He said and Mick handed him the bag with the hair in it,"Give me..hmm..3 hours and I'll be able to tell you exactly who's head this hair this belongs to."

We said good-bye and left. Once we were in Mick's car going back to his apartment Beth asked,"What are we going to do with the three hours we have to kill?"

I thought for a moment, I had a plan forming in my head, and finally said,"Anyone up for the movies?"

Five minutes later we were standing outside of a movie theater.We walked in side and I waltzed up to the ticket counter and bought tickets before Mick and Beth reached it. I walked back to them with two tickets in my hand, not three, two and handed the tickets to each of them with a mischevious smile on my face.

"Enjoy your movie." I said and walked out of the building leaving them both very confused. The first part of my plan was done.

I took a cab back to Mick's apartment. Luckily Mick had given me the key code to his apartment in case of emergency so I could get in. I walked into his office and searched for a contact book or something. I found one and when I discovered the number I needed I dialed it.

It rang twice and the person on the other line answered,"Hello?"

"Hey Josef, it's Kate, can you help me with something?" I asked slyly.

An hour and a half later Mick and Beth's movie was just ending and the second part of my plan was finished. I now sat on the couch drinking my third glass of blood talking to Josef who had helped me. You see, I needed money for this part of my plan and unfortunately I didn't have much of that, but Josef did.

"So why are you doing this again?" he asked for the second time that night.

I rolled my eyes,"Because I felt like it."

This time he rolled his eyes,"But _why_?"

"Ugh, because I'm hoping that this will help them confess their feelings for each other." I replied.

"Aw, how sweet."Josef said sarcastically.

I glared at him,"You're making me regret it now."

He just grinned wickedly.

Suddenly the door unlocked and Mick walked in followed by Beth, both smiling. Obviously, they had a good time. The first thing they noticed was me and Josef sitting on the couch which was surprising, but what was more surprising was the second thing they noticed. A table was set in the living room complete with elegant food, candles, rose petals, and for Mick a big glass of fresh delicious blood. Of course there was only two chairs not four.

"Have a good meal, guys." I said grabbing my jacket and heading for the door smiling.

"Yeah, but dinner first, you can do all the kissing later." Josef added following me out and winked at Mick.

As the door closed the two of them just stood there, at a loss for words. Finally Mick walked over towards the table and pulled out the chair meant for Beth

"Have a seat." he said grinning,"We shouldn't let this all go to waste."

Beth smiled and walked over and sat down.Mick took the seat across from her.

"Well this night has been a little weird."she said.

"Yeah, but so far I've liked it."Mick replied.

Beth checked her watch,"We've got an hour and a half until Chris is done."

"Lets make the most of it then."he said smiling.

An hour later they finished their meal and seated themselves on the couch.

"That was nice of Kate to plan all this."Beth said trying to start a conversation.

Mick didn't answer, he just stared into her eyes for a moment. Before Beth could ask him why he wasn't talking he kissed her. She was surprised at first but soon started returning the kiss. Mick pulled away for a second.

"I love you Beth."he said and kissed her again with more passion. When they pulled back for air Beth answered.

"I love you too."

I listened to all of this from outside the door, Josef was beside me listening too.

"Well, sounds like it worked."he said

I just smiled. The third and final part of my plan was completed.

**OK i hope that was good, I thought the story needed a break from the seriousness. Please review!!!! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE! I'll give you cookie!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Sorry I havnt updated in awhile, Ive been really sick. Anyways hope you enjoy this chapter!**

I awoke to my alarm blaring,easily heard even through my freezer door. I wearily climbed out of my freezer. Suddenly I realized something and groaned. It's Monday. I hate Mondays with a passion. Mondays mean the end of my weekend and the beginning of yet another week of school.

Don't even get me started on high school. I have been in the eleventh grade for over a century. It's torture. You're probably wondering if it's so horrible why do I go? Simple. If I don't go it will raise suspicion and the school will want to confront a parent or guardian, and my parents are dead, so is my guardian.

I realized that if I don't stop sitting around thinking about how terrible going to school is I'll be late. I quickly left my bedroom to get ready.

An hour later I was sitting in homeroom. The teacher,Mr. Colvin, was giving some kind of lecture on discipline after busting some guy for texting in class. I ignored him and decided to get lost in my own thoughts.

I closed my eyes and concentrated on my vampiric hearing. I could hear every sound made in this classroom. Actually I could hear every sound made in several classrooms. I heard all the gum-chewing,texting, and pencils writing. If I wanted to I could hear individual conversations, but I didn't want to because they were all very uninteresting. I tried to ignore the sound of hearts beating and blood pulsing.

Then I heard the door open and two pairs of footsteps walk in. Giving in to my curiosity, I opened my eyes.

Standing in the front of my class was the vice principal who said something to my teacher and walked back out of the classroom. The other person I heard was a boy who now stood facing the class smiling. He was very attractive, I had to admit, with his sandy brown hair, light blue eyes, and athletic body.

"Class meet Nicholas Cardwell. He's new here, make him feel welcome." Mr. Colvin said unenthusiastically.

"It's Nick." the new guy said correcting the teacher.

"Does anyone want to show _Nicholas_ around on his first day?"Mr. Colvin asked stubbornly using Nick's full name.

All the girls raised their hands, the boys glared at him jealously. I didn't raise my hand, I didn't feel like showing this guy around all day while he annoyed me by asking lots of questions.

"Ah Miss Jackson, you'll do."Mr. Colvin said. Of course he picked me.

"But I didn't raise my hand!"I argued.

"No arguing Miss Jackson, you will help Nicholas today."he said pursing his lips.

I surpressed the urge to rip his throat out and sighed, defeated.

"Nicholas, please take your seat next to Miss Jackson." Mr. Colvin said pointing to the empty desk beside mine in the very back row.

Nick made his way to the back and plopped down in the seat. I looked around and noticed all the girls glaring at me with envy. I ignored them and Mr. Colvin resumed his boring lecture. I closed my eyes again only to be interrupted by a hand touching my arm. I opened my eyes and grabbed the hand tightly.

"Ouch! You're going to break my fingers!"The new kid exclaimed.

"Your fingers won't be the only thing I break if you touch me again."I threatened and released his hand.

"Jeez sorry, I was just going to introduce myself."Nick said rubbing is hand, then held it out to shake,"My name is--"

"I already know your name."I said ignoring the hand he held out.

He awkwardly dropped his hand and asked,"So you got a name then?"

"Kate."I replied and turned around the face the front of the classroom.

"That's a pretty name, it's very nice to meet you Kate." he said smiling, despite my bad attitude toward him. I turned to look at him. He has a great smile. I smiled back briefly,"Thanks." I said and turned back.

After that class ended, I headed for my next class, math. Call me a nerd, but I actually kind of like math.

"Hey, Kate. Could you show me where my next class is."Nick asked from behind me.

I really didn't want to. I wanted to say no and walk away, but I didn't because I didn't want to seem like a jerk to him. I have no clue why though...

"What class is it?" I asked turning around to face him.

He looked at the piece of paper in his hand and said,"Math."

Of course."Same as me, come on." I said and started walking down the hall.

Nick ended up being in every one of my classes. I got to know him better in each one. He moved here from New York, he's played soccer for seven years, but quit recently. His dad is a lawyer and his mom died when he was eight. I also realized that he was a nice guy. I didn't tell him much about myself except my name, that my parents died, and I live with my uncle Mick. That last one was a lie, but he'd probably find it weird that I lived alone. I also told him Mick is a PI and I'm his assistant, atleast that's the truth. We became pretty good friends before the day was over.

When school ended I headed for my car. As I opened the driver's side door, Nick walked over to me.

"Hey, do you have and plans later? I thought we could get something to eat somewhere, as friends of course."He said grinning.

I shook my head,"I would love to, but I have to help my uncle with something."

"Oh."He said dissapointed,"Tomorrow then?"

"Maybe,"I said smiling.With that I got into my car and drove to Mick's apartment.

The day before, when the DNA results came in, Chris figured out the hair belonged to a Fred Smithe. We were going to go in search for the suspect, but it was late and Beth needed to sleep. It wouldn't have been a problem for me and Mick to work late, but Beth refused to let us go without her, so we decided to go after I got out of school.

As I drove I glanced out the window at the people and saw something that almost made me wreck into the other cars. The vampire, the one thats been following me, was standing on the sidewalk. I made eye contact with him and his eyes flashed to the icey vampire ones and back to his mortal ones. I accelerated my car, determined to get as far away as possible from that vampire.

When I reached Mick's apartment and knocked on the door it took awhile for Mick to answer. When he did I saw that his hair was ruffled and I noticed a little lipstick on his face.

I raised an eyebrow,"Am I interrupting something?"

He opened his mouth to speak but I held up my hand for silence,"I don't wanna know."

Mick blushed and stepped aside to me in. The couch was a mess. The pillows were on the floor and the cushions askew. Beth was sitting on it awkwardly looking at me.

"So, did you guys spend _any _of your time today finding out things about Fred Smithe? Or was all your time spent on the couch?" I said stifling laughter.

**I hope you liked it, please review! PLEEEEEAASE!!!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Once again sorry I didnt update quicker, curse my writers block! lol heres chapter 8! Oh and I hope my descriptive writing skills improved this chapter. Also, I'd like to thank all the people who have reviewed me! You make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside...lol. Sorry, on with the story!**

"I spent at least an hour researching him and managed to figure out where he lives and works."Mick said matter-of-factly.

"Oh, good job. Gold star for Mick."I said teasingly.

Mick glared at me and Beth laughed. I smiled and said,"So,you guys wanna go or do you want me to leave and come back later so you guys can - "

"No,no. We can go now." Mick interrupted grabbing his jacket and car keys.

A few minutes later we're walking out of Mick's building to his car. On the way, Mick had explained that our suspect,Fred, is a car salesman. Weird job for a murderer. Mick also told me where he lives, but we're going to check out his work first.

"Can I drive?"I asked hopefully as we approached Mick's car.

"What do you think?"Mick said.

"Yes?"

"No."

"Please?"I begged. Pathetic, I know.

Mick turned and gave me a look,"No."he said and opened the door to the back seat for me. I glared at him and plopped down in the seat with a huff. Mick closed my door and opened the door for Beth and soon we were driving towards the car dealership.

We arrived at a large building with a very big lot in front of it filled with cars on sale. The building had ceiling to floor windows stretching across the front displaying fancy sports cars. I wished I had lots of money like Josef so I could buy a nice, expensive car to replace my old one. I also didn't want lots of money like Josef, because if I did, I'd probably start acting like Josef and _nobody _wants two Josefs...OK,maybe a few people would.

The three of us walked towards the building after we parked. A young man in a suit came up to us and offered a great deal on a car.

Mick declined and asked him if he knew Fred Smithe.

"I'm afraid not. I'm kind of new here, I don't really know everybody yet." He replied and hurried past us to a couple who had just arrived.

We continued walking and entered the building. While Mick and Beth went off to interrogate employees, I wandered over to the display cars. A porsche caught my eye and I walked over to it. It was a nice red one with tinted windows. I reached out to touch it and the car alarm went off. The people around me were startled and looked over at me.

"Umm, oops." I said and walked, more like ran, over to Mick and Beth who were talking to a older man in a blue suit. He was just answering one of Mick's questions.

"No, he hasn't been into work for a couple of days,"he said,"It's too bad, he's a great salesman, we need him here."

"Did he act weird before he stopped coming to work? Like something was bothering him or he was angry?" Beth asked in her reporter tone.

The man pondered the question and finally said,"Not really, but he did get into an argument with someone the last time he was here."

"What did this someone look like?" I asked, cutting off Mick who was probably about to ask the same question.

"He was about my height, he had dark brown hair, and he looked like he was in his early twenties." He replied with his eyes directed towards the ceiling while rubbing his chin.

Beth, Mick, and I glanced at each other. He just described our dead guy.

"Did you hear what they were arguing about?" I asked cutting off Mick again. I could feel him glaring at me.

He shook his head,"No,sorry. They were outside. I was in here, I saw them through the window." he answered.

"OK, I think we got everything we need to know, thanks."Mick said before I could cut him off again.

We questioned a few more employees and got pretty much the same answers, until we talked to a salesman who had heard part of the argument Fred had. The salesman said he had heard the other guy say something about calling the police and turning "it" in and Fred had said no, that they could keep "it" and they could be rich and then the other guy said he's going to the police and walked away. Whatever "it" is, we need to find out.

"So here's what we know, Fred hasn't been to work since the murder happened, and before it happened he had an argument with our dead guy over something worth going to the police over." I said as we drove to Fred's home.

"Maybe they found something valuable, like a bag of money or jewels or something and Fred killed the guy before he could turn it in to the police so he could keep it for himself." Beth said.

"Probably."I agreed.

We stopped outside of a five-story building. It looked a little run-down. Actually, more than a little, alot. Some of the windows were broken and a few had bars on them. The building itself looked very old. The plants around it were overgrown and vines creeped up the side.

Mick and I entered warily while Beth hesitated and followed. The inside wasn't much different from the outside condition wise.

The lobby was small with dirty white walls and floors. Dead plants were lying around and a worn out looking desk complete with a worn out looking old man was on the right wall. On the left wall was a shabby looking elevator and a door to a flight of stairs. I would never live in a place like this. From the outside, it looks like a gust of wind would knock it over.

"Excuse me? Could you tell me which apartment Fred Smithe lives in?" Beth asked politely, walking up to the desk.

"Ehh, sure." The old man grumbled,"Hmm, let's see here...ah, apartment number 3 on the second floor."

"Thanks."Mick said and we walked over to the elevator. I pushed the button and as we waited I could hear horrible grinding noises coming from the elevator shaft. Then the door opened agonizingly slow while creaking loudly only to reveal a very untidy space littered with trash...and I think I saw a rat.

"I wouldn't ride on that elevator even of my life depended on it." I declared and walked towards the doorway to the stairs, Mick and Beth followed closely.

Once we reached apartment number 3 Mick knocked on the door loudly.

"Why don't we just kick the door down and go get him."I asked

"Because, he might not have murdered anybody."Mick replied.

"So?"I said. When he gave me that look of his I turned back to the door and crossed my arms,"Fine. But my way is funner."I mumbled.

Mick was about to say something but then the door opened. A man with black hair and blue eyes dressed in a T-shirt and jeans stood there.

"What do you want?" He asked, eyeing us curiously.

"I'm a private investigator and I wanted to talk to you about the murder of - " before Mick could utter another word the door was slammed in his face. With my vampire hearing, I heard his footsteps running across the floor and then a window being opened.

"Why do they always run?"Mick groaned,"They should know by now they'll always get caught."

I kicked the door down easily and ran inside. The first thing I noticed was an open window leading out to a fire escape. The second thing I noticed was a plate of molded food on the floor two feet away from me. Ew.

Mick flew past me and out of the window, I followed just as fast, and Beth did the best she could without the speed of a vampire.

Mick and I jumped over the edge of the fire escape, while Beth had to climb down the ladders. Poor Beth. Fred was running down the ally. I sped after him and jumped on him. I had him pinned on the ground and Mick and Beth caught up.

"OK,OK! I did it! I killed him!" Fred yelled.

Wow. That was easy.

**PLEASE REVIEW AND TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK!! PLEEEASE!!!!!!!!** **and thank you :)**


	9. Chapter 9

**Thanks to the **_**single **_**person who reviewed my last chapter and also to the people who've reviewed past chapters. Heres chapter 9.**

I woke up once again to my alarm going off and slowly climbed out of my freezer for yet another day at school. The day before, Fred admitted to be responsible for killing a man. Once he was in custody of the police he also confessed to finding bags of money and drugs in the trunk of a car that was sold to the dealership. The police tracked down the recent owner of the car and it turns out he's a drug dealer. The bags had contained 5 million dollars worth of drugs and money. At first I thought the case was just too easy, Fred hadn't even tried to defend himself. I confronted him at the police station with this and he said it was because the murder was an accident and he felt like he deserved to go to jail for it. He said he had been drunk when he killed the guy and had woken up the next morning with a killer hang over and covered in blood. Realizing what he had done he didn't go to work and locked himself up in his apartment. I didn't believe him at first, but when I looked him in the eye I knew he was genuine.

The sound of my cell phone interrupted my recollection of the previous day. I pulled it out of my pocket and read the text message that popped up onto the screen from Mick: _Meet me at my apartment after school. I think I have another case. _I smiled and put my cell phone back.

An hour later I'm walking down the halls of my school, lost in my thoughts. It took me a minute to realize I was being watched. I whirled around and came face to face with...Nick.

"Hey,Kate."Nick said, a smile played across his lips.

"Oh,hey, Nick."I greeted relaxing and began walking again with Nick to our first class.

"Are we still on after school?"he asked.

"Of course."I said with a smile forgetting that I had to meet Mick. He returned the smile as we entered the classroom.

The whole day went by pretty slow,but Nick made it alot better than it usually is with his great sense of humor, his great smile, his great personality, just his great everything. We were walking to our cars after school talking and laughing and suddenly Nick stopped and asked,"Who's that guy by your car?"

I followed his gaze and spotted who he was talking about. A young man with light brown hair and brown eyes wearing an expensive business suit as usual was leaning against my car, his arms crossed watching us and waiting for me.

"Josef."I muttered under my breath.

Nick heard it,"Who?" He asked.

"Nobody, I'll be right back, wait here ok?" I said and walking away, but before I could take another step Nick grabbed my wrist gently pulling me back.

"I should go with you, that guy looks dangerous Kate."he said looking at me with concern in his eyes.

"He won't hurt me Nick I promise."I reassured him,"just wait here."

Without an answer I walked away from him and towards Josef. When I reached him he was grinning with amusement,he probably heard Nick's comment on how he looked dangerous,but I could also see a tiny amount of protectiveness in his eyes, like he thought Nick was threat to me or something. I grinned when I saw this.

"Who's that guy?"Josef asked curiously,"Your boyfriend?"

"He's just a friend, Josef."I replied and then smiled mischeviously and added,"Why? Are you jealous?"

"Maybe." He said and handed me a folded piece of paper,"Time to get serious, I found this in Mick's apartment, him and Beth are both missing, I thought they must've run away together, until I found this note."

I slowly unfolded the paper, a short note was written in elegant handwriting, I read it in shock:

_I've got the P.I. and his girlfriend. They're safe...for now_

Directions to who knows where were scrawled across the bottom. I was speechless. Who could do this? Who was out to get me? That vampire thats been harrasing me the past few days? No human could have captured Mick _and _Beth and hold them captive.

I started pacing. A million questions flooded my mind to which I had no answers.

Nick noticed my panic and walked over quickly,Josef tensed up a little I noticed,"Is something wrong?"Nick asked me worridly.

"I'm not going to make it today either, sorry." I said and stopped pacing,"you should go home, I'll see you tomorrow."If I don't get my head cut off trying to save Mick and Beth, I added silently in my mind.

He hesitated, sighed and said,"Alright, tomorrow then." With that he walked away.

"Sorry you had to miss your date."Josef said after Nick was out of ear-shot.

"Not a date, Josef!" I said irritated.

"A little testy aren't you?"He said flashing a smile,"has anyone ever told you you're cute when your angry?"

"Uggh!"I groaned. Josef could be so annoying sometimes! The only reason I'm not cutting his head off right now is because he has a nice personality in him...somewhere. I realized I was staring at him and involuntarily blushed, and began pacing again. He had noticed this too and smirked.

I pushed my thoughts of Josef out of my mind and focused on the real issue. I had to help Mick and Beth. I could be walking right into a trap by following those directions. At that moment I didn't care. But I couldn't go alone.

I sighed and turned to Josef,"Josef, I need your help with this." I said.

"Well of course you do!"He said smugly and I seriously reconsidered chopping off his head.

"Let's go, get in." I said opening the passenger door for him.

"Nope, I'm driving."He said and walked to the other side of the car and opened the driver's door,"Throw me the keys."

I didn't feel like arguing so I threw the keys at his face with inhuman strength. Unfortunately he caught them easily.

The car ride was quiet. Josef tried to start a conversation a few times, but he failed miserabley. I usually didn't mind talking to him, I just wasn't in the mood for his smart remarks today. I sat staring out of the window the whole time. After about and hour and a half of silence we stopped at an abandoned warehouse in the middle of nowhere. We got out of the car and gazed at the rusty metal building for a minute or so.

"I feel like I'm in a movie."Josef said grinning,"I'm sure when we walk inside a voice will say 'I've been expecting you.' out of nowhere and Mick and Beth will be tied to chairs or something."

I rolled my eyes and began walking towards the omnious looking structure. The doors were huge and looked hard to open, for a human atleast. I easily slid open one of the doors and stepped warily inside followed closely by Josef. It was pitch black besides the light that shone through the door. Even with my vampire eye-sight I could barely make out the interior of the warehouse.

"I've been expecting you." A silky voice said from nowhere it seemed. The voice almost sounded familiar...

"Wow, I called that one, didn't I?" Josef whispered beside me.

Suddenly a man, no, a vampire stepped into the light so we could see him clearly. Wait a minute --

Holy crap! My sire?! He's supposed to be dead! I know for sure he's supposed to be dead because _I_ killed him!

**I'm satisfied with that chapter, what do you think? please review! PlEaSe :) and thank you!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Thanks to the 2 people who reviewed! once again 12 Withering Roses your review has brightened my day :D I think I did good with this chapter, I hope you like it as much as I do!**

I stared in wide eyed shock at the vampire that stood before me. Josef noticed the expression on my face,"What is it?" He asked.

"It can't be - " I gasped.

"It's not." the vampire said,"I'm not your sire Katherine, my name is Alexander, his brother."

"What?" I said confused. I studied his appearance and noticed some major difference's between Phillip, my sire, and this guy. Phillip was tall, about 6'4". Alexander here looks about 6'2". Phillips bone structure is different too, Alexander has sharper features. Other than that they could pass as twins.

"What do you want? Where are Mick and Beth?" I asked my shock turning into anger.

"Your friends are fine, I will let them go. I needed a way to get you here somehow. Now you will pay for killing my brother." He said his eyes becoming clouded with anger and a tinge of sadness.

"But he killed my sister!" I said and suddenly I remembered that night 130 years ago like it was yesterday...

_My sister, Jessica, stood in shock as she saw me for what I truly am, a vampire. She took a step back in fear,"No,no! You're not my sister!" she shouted._

_"Jess, please, it's me." I said taking a step toward her._

_"Stay back, you monster!" she yelled and grabbed the sharpened wooden stick from the table that she always had near her ever since she saw my sire feeding off of a young girl a few nights ago._

_"Jess, you must understand, I won't hurt you!" I pleaded._

_She ignored what I said and lunged at me with the stake. Suddenly my sire Phillip intercepted her and hit her a little too hard. She flew across the room and hit the wall, then she fell and hit her head on the sharp corner of a table that was against the wall. Blood poured from her mouth from internal bleeding caused by the impact with the wall._

_I ran over to her. I could barely hear her heart beat. It was so faint. She wasn't going to live long. I held her in my arms as she died. With her last breath she managed to speak two words,"I'm sorry." With that she closed her eyes and her heart stopped forever._

My flashback ended when Alexander spoke,"He only killed her to protect you, she tried to stake you remember?"

"Of course I remember, and I could've stopped her without killing her!" I snapped angrily.

"Phillip was just trying to help you Katherine, and you killed him." He said defending his dead brother. Another memory flashed through my mind...

_"How could you?!" I shouted at Phillip rising from Jess's body and turning to face him," You killed her!"_

_He looked at me sympathetically,"Kate, I - "_

_"Save it!" I spat angrily interrupting him. I turned to the fireplace mantle where a sword was kept on display. It grabbed it and turned to face my sire, my eyes changed and my fangs extended._

_He took a step back and was about to say something, but before he could speak I ran at him so fast he didn't have time to move. In blind rage I swung the sword. At first, I thought I missed, but then his head fell to the floor followed by his body, a shocked expression frozen on his face. Realizing what I had done I dropped the sword, fell to my knees, and wept._

When my flashback was over tears streamed down my face. I wiped them away stubbornly. I had told myself all these years that killing my sire had been the right thing to do. He had killed Jess, my sister, the only family I had left after my parents died. But I know deep down he was only trying to protect me, because he loved me, and I killed him.

"I shouldn't have killed him," I said aloud, tears filled my eyes again, I didn't bother to wipe them away this time,"I'm sorry."

"It's too late for that, I will avenge my brother." He said angrily. His eyes changed from brown to white and his fangs grew.

"Do two wrongs really make a right?" Josef asked. I had almost forgot he was there. He had been listening, surprisingly silent, the whole time. I looked over at him, he looked at me and noticed I was crying, and to my surprise, his eyes softened.

"No." Alexander answered," But it sure will make me feel better." He lunged at me, Josef tried to stop him but was caught off-guard by a vampire that I hadn't even noticed before. In the milliseconds I had before Alexander reached me I was shocked to see the other vampire was the one that's been following me. He must be working for Alexander, helping him find me and luring me in.

Alexander crashed into me suddenly and pinned me to the ground. I bit into his arm loosening his grip. I escaped his grasp and jumped to my feet. He ran towards me. I stood still, waiting. At the last moment I jumped high into the air and he ran under me. Gravity brought me down on top of him. When I landed on him I heard a sickening crack as he landed on his leg awkwardly. He cried out in pain. I quickly jumped away from him and something hit the back of my head as I backed up. I spun around and saw a small metal chain. Curious, I pulled on it and the pitch black warehouse became filled with light revealing boxes and shelves filled with useless junk. Alexander was struggling with his leg, a bone was sticking out of it and he was losing blood quickly, he was struggling to push it back into place.

I took this chance to check on Josef. The vampire was circling him and Josef was growling at him waiting for the perfect moment to attack. Seeing that Josef was OK, I started to search for Mick and Beth. I walked around the shelves and boxes and made my way to the back of the warehouse. Before I reached it I came across a table laden with weapons. There were guns, knives, and even swords. I picked up a large sword and touched the tip of the blade. It burned my finger on contact. It was made of silver. I made a quick decision and walked back to the entrance of the building to find that the vampire had Josef pinned against a wall now. Silently I walked up behind the vampire thats been following me and harassing me the past few days and then swung the sword that I held in my hand through his neck and he fell to the ground, decapitated.

"Take that." I said to the severed head at my feet.

"Remind me not to piss you off." Josef said grinning.

"Will do." I replied with a smile.

I heard a grunt behind me. I turned around to see that Alexander was on his feet. He had managed to pop the bone back into place and his leg was healing slowly. He looked up at me with anger in his eyes. With the little strength he had he ran at me. I swung the sword aiming for his neck and he ducked quickly. As the sword passed over his head his hand shot up and grabbed the part of the hilt I wasn't holding and snatched it out of my hands. Before I could even react he rose up and ran me through with the silver sword, right between the ribs.

I have never felt that kind of pain ever in my life, as a human or a vampire. When I was human, I've broken bones and got nasty gashes. As a vampire, I've fallen off buildings, been shot multiple times, and cut to shreds, but I have never experienced anything more painful and agonizing than being stabbed with a sword made of silver.

My vision went white and I became dizzy. I fell to my knees. I couldn't even scream. Alexander let go of the hilt and backed away.I tried to pull the sword out with no prevail. Tears filled my eyes. At that moment I felt like I was going to die.

**Please review!!! **


	11. Chapter 11

**Thanks again to all my wonderful reviewers who have bothered to review my story. Here's chapter 11!**

Darkness clouded my vision. I dropped onto my side and closed my eyes tightly. The sword was still lodged securely through my ribs. I couldn't sense Alexander anymore, he must have run.

"Kate!" I heard Josef yell. Suddenly I sensed him at my side. I briefly opened my eyes to see the concerned expression on his face. He gripped the hilt and carefully pulled the sword out of me. I could feel my wound trying to heal, but I needed blood and unfortunately I had lost most of mine.

"I have to go find Mick and Beth, I'll be back, just stay here OK?"Josef said softly and began walking quickly away. I closed my eyes once again. Did he really think I'd get up and walk away? With that thought I slowly slipped out of consciousness.

-With Josef-

Josef weaved around the shelves and piles of boxes looking for somewhere Mick and Beth might be. He had to be quick. Kate needed blood and soon. He picked up speed and began sprinting through all the obstacles, searching at vampire speed.

Finally he came upon a door at the back of the building. It was big and made of steel, there was also a small square window near the top of the door. Josef ran up to it and peeked inside. The inside was deprived of light besides the small amount that shone through the window, he could see a dark figure huddled in a corner with another figure lying in the it's arms. He shoved the bolt out of the lock, even with his super strength it was pretty heavy. Quickly, he pushed the door open. Light poured inside revealing Mick and Beth. They both looked dead, but Josef was reassured when Beth stirred and Mick's eyes opened.Mick jumped up baring his fangs to attack the intruder, but relaxed when he saw who it was.

"Josef,"he said wearily,"thank God."

"Don't thank God, Mick, thank me. I'm the one saving you."he said with a crooked smile.

Mick smiled back the best he could. He looked like he had taken a major beating from those vampires. Beth slowly got up and faced them, eyes squinting against the light.

"Let's go. We need to get Kate home, she needs blood now." Josef said as he began walking out of the small cell.

Mick caught up with him followed by Beth,"What happened?"Beth asked worridly.

"Alexander, the vamp that kidnapped you, stabbed her with a silver sword." Josef replied quickening his pace.

When they reached Kate she was lying unconscious on the ground. Josef gently scooped her up in his arms and walked towards the entrance of the warehouse. When outside, they sped over to Kate's car and piled in. Josef set Kate down carefully in the passenger seat as Mick and Beth sat in the back.

An hour later, Mick, Beth, and Josef sat on the couches in Josef's home. Kate lay on the couch Josef sat on curled up, still unconscious. They all sat in silence, thinking of nothing to talk about, waiting for Kate to wake up.

-Kate's POV-

I awoke with a horrible headache, the place between my ribs hurt terribly,and the need for blood was almost unbearable. Suddenly it all came back to me. Mick and Beth kidnapped, the warehouse, getting stabbed. I opened my eyes slowly. As my vision adjusted to the light I heard a relieved sigh next to me. I looked around warily and realized I must be in Josef's house, because everything looked ridiculously expensive.

I rolled over and winced as the pain where I got stabbed increased. Mick and Beth sat across from me and next to me was Josef. They all looked very concerned.

"Are you OK?"Josef asked me.

"Blood..." I croaked, my mouth was really dry.

"Of course."he said and rose off the couch and walked into the kitchen. He returned quickly with a very large glass of blood.

"I didn't bother getting a freshie.You're probably like Mick, getting your blood from blood banks, right?" he said and sat the glass down on the table in front of me.

I nodded weakly, sat up, and grabbed the blood. I gulped it down quickly. I felt much better, but I still needed more. Josef took the glass, understanding, and came back with a refill. I drank it slower than before. Finally I felt like I'd had enough. I looked down at my injury. The nasty wound was healing quickly, soon it was gone, the only evidence was the blood stain on my shirt. Even with it fully healed I still felt exhausted and I soon drifted off to sleep.

I woke up again later that night. When I opened my eyes, Mick and Beth were no longer there, but surprisingly Josef sat in a chair near the couch I was on. He had his cell phone to his ear speaking angrily into it. When he saw I was awake he wrapped up the call quickly and came over.

"Need some blood?" he asked.

I nodded and he disappeared into the kitchen. I sat up on the couch and looked around. I was sitting in a large room with two couches, one chair, a coffee table, a flat screen television on a wall and a collection of old looking, priceless decorations. Also there was a very large window with a great view of L.A.. Josef exited the kitchen and handed me my third glass of blood today and watched as I quickly drank it all.

"Thanks, Josef." I said gratefully.

"It's no problem, that blood is expendable, I prefer fresh blood anyways." he said grinning.

"Not just for the blood though, for everything,"I said and smiled,"it was really nice of you."

A disgusted expression crossed Josef's face,"Don't get all mushy now." he said.

I laughed and got up,"I better go."

Josef rose out of his chair again and walked me to the door. He opened the door for me, but before I walked out I hugged him unexpectedly.

"Really Josef, thanks." I said and walked out the door. Josef stood there, a surprised look on his face, as I got into my car and drove away.

**Take just a minute of your time to review my story and you'll make me really happy! I love reviews!**


	12. Chapter 12

**Thanks to my totally awesome readers who have bothered to review me, you're all great! here's chapter 12.**

The next day I awoke, feeling the usual need to satisfy my hunger for blood, and sleepily crawled out of my freezer for yet another day of high school.

On the way there, I couldn't seem to get something, well, some_one,_off my mind. Yeah, you guessed it, Josef. I couldn't stop thinking about the way he looked at me yesterday, with such caring in his eyes. He _cared_about me. I like Josef, I like him a lot. But then there's Nick. Nick and his great personality, good sense of humor, and beautiful smile. I remembered his concern when he saw Josef, a stranger, standing at my car, waiting on me. He cared about me too.

I sighed as I plopped down at my desk. Class wasn't going to start for another 15 minutes. Including me, there were only 3 people in the classroom. Finally Nick walked in, flashing a smile when his light blue eyes fell on me. I returned the smile the best I could when he took the seat next to me.

Noticing my weak attempt at a smile he asked,"Are you OK?"

"Of course, I'm just a little tired."I reassured him.

He didn't look convinced, but he didn't press the matter any farther. Which is one of the reasons I like him so much.

"If you say so...but do you think we can _finally_ go out to eat after school like we planned days ago?" He asked hopefully.

I bit my lip. I had already planned on spending the day with Mick and Beth. They were still getting over being locked in a dark 6' by 6' room for over 5 hours.

"Sorry, Nick. I totally forgot! I can't, I - " Before I could finish explaining he cut me off.

"Why do you keep blowing me off, Kate?" Nick demanded, more than a little irritated,"Did I do something wrong?"

"No-"

"Then why?"

I looked away for a second, then back at him, making eye contact with him. Finally I replied,"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Try me, I tend to have an open mind."

"Nick...trust me, you _would not_believe me."

"Just tell me! I promise if it's something crazy I won't put you in a mental institution." he said, with a quick grin.

I couldn't tell him. I can't tell him about vampires. I won't. I don't want to drag Nick into this chaotic world I live in.

"I'm sorry...I just can't." I said softly.

He held my gaze for a moment then turned in his seat away from me.

Nick ignored me for the rest of the day, still mad I wouldn't give him and explanation. I tried to talk to him many times, but he just pretended I wasn't there. I felt really lonely throughout the whole day. But he did speak to me once, he said, "I'm not talking to you until you decide to tell me why you've been avoiding me after school." I tried telling him I wasn't avoiding him, but he had just walked away.

After school I didn't feel like hanging out with Mick and Beth. I would probably put a damper on their mood anyway with my moping because of Nick. But I don't want to go home either. Hm, where to go, where to go. Ah ha. I know just the place.

I knocked on the door loudly. It was still daytime, so he's probably blissfully asleep in his freezer. Too bad I gotta ruin it. Finally the door opened. Josef stood there wearing silk pants and a T-shirt. His skin was still frosty from being in the freezer.

"Kate," he said, " What a pleasant surprise."

"Josef...Can I come in?"

"Of course," he said with smile and stepped aside. I walked in and he closed the door behind me. Then he turned, leaned against the door, and crossed his arms casually.

"So, is there any particular reason you disturbed my peaceful slumber?" He asked, looking at me as if he'd find the answer written on my face.

I opened my mouth to answer, but closed it when I realized I actually had no logical reason for being there.

"I, uh, well..." I stuttered and bit my lip.

He smirked, "It's because you missed me isn't it?"

I rolled my eyes, "You're so full of yourself."

He shrugged and detached himself from the door. He walked closer to me until he was only two feet away.

"Then why did you come?" he asked.

"I didn't have anywhere else to go..." I replied biting my lip again.

"Do you not have a home?"

"Fine. I'm leaving." I said and tried to push past him, but he pulled me in closer to him and kissed me. Shocked, I pushed him away.

"Josef, I can't." I said and took a step back.

He looked disappointed, "It's because of that _human _isn't it?"

I looked down at the floor and back up, "Just let me go."

"Fine." He said and moved to let me pass. I looked into his eyes before I walked past him. They were filled with annoyance, anger, and even a little hurt.

I didn't like to leave Josef like that, but I did. I'm sure I'll regret it later. Now I sit in my car driving, thinking about that kiss. I have to admit, I liked it. I didn't know why I pushed him away. Maybe it was because the whole time he kissed me, I was thinking of Nick.

Suddenly I heard the horrible, terrible sound of an engine dying. My car slowed dramatically and I quickly maneuvered it to the side of the road. When I was parked I banged my head against the steering wheel three times and got out of my car. I'll just leave it there, I can walk. I hate that stupid car anyways. I was so upset that the two guys I cared about most were angry with me that I just didn't care.

As I walked down the sidewalk towards home I muttered, "This day just_cannot _get any worse."

Before the sentence was even completely out of my mouth, thunder rolled and lightning flashed as it began to rain.

By the time I got home I was soaking wet. Dripping, I walked into my room and raided my closet to trade my wet clothes for dry ones.

As soon as my short-sleeved red shirt slipped on over my head I heard a knock at my door. Quickly, I pulled my jeans on and passed through my small living room to the door.

I opened the door to see Beth standing there looking worried. As soon as she saw me relief washed over her face.

"Hey Beth, something wrong?" I asked and opened the door wide enough for her to walk in.

"I just came to see if you were alright, you were supposed to come over to Mick's remember?" she said as she passed me.

"Oh sorry, I forgot to call you to tell you I wasn't coming." I apologized and closed the door.

"That's OK." she assured me and noticed the tired, sad expression on my face, "You OK?"

I shook my head, "I've had a bad day."

Beth walked farther into my home and seated herself on my couch, "What happened?"

I don't know why, and I don't know what made me do it, but I spilled my guts to Beth. About Josef, about Nick, about everything. It sure felt good to vent my feelings.

At the end of my story Beth looked around and then back at me. Finally she said, "Wow...you and Josef? That was unexpected...but Nick, he sounds like a great guy.

I nodded and smiled, "He is."

"But Josef?"

I shrugged and Beth laughed. We talked a long time about lots of things: Our life, our feelings, guys. You know, girl stuff.

As Beth got up to leave I said, "You're going to tell Mick all about this aren't you?"

She smiled mischievously as she walked out the door, "Duh."

**:) hope you liked it. Review please, it may feel like a waste of time to you, but it really makes my day.**


	13. Chapter 13

**Thanks reviewers, you rock! OK here's chapter 13, the unlucky number, perfect for introducing a new bad guy :)**

"Any new cases?" I asked Mick and sat down on the couch next to Beth with a glass of blood in my hands. I had just gotten there from school. So far, this day has been better than yesterday. Nick actually talked to me, but he's still angry with me. As for Josef, I haven't seen him since yesterday.

"Yeah, a couple came in this morning and hired me to find their missing daughter." Mick replied taking a seat across from me and Beth.

"How long has she been missing?" I asked before a sip from the glass in my hand.

"About a day."

"Shouldn't they report it to the police?"

"A person has to be missing for at least 48 hours before you can report it to the police." Beth said beside me.

"OK, how do we know she's not just off with her friends?" I asked.

Before anyone could answer a knock came at the door. Please don't let it be Josef, I thought and then realized if it _was _Josef he would have just walked in. I looked at the screen mounted on the wall by the door to see who it was. No one was there. Odd.

As Mick started to get up I said,"I'll check it out."

I got up and walked to the door. Slowly, I opened it and looked down the hall. No one. I was about to turn around and walk back inside when I noticed a folded piece of paper on the floor at my feet. Curious, I bent down, picked it up, and held it in my hand for a second staring at it. Could this be from Alexander?

Warily, I unfolded the paper. It wasn't from Alexander. His handwriting was elegant, this writing was kind of scratchy and looked to be written with an old ink pen. While I read it my eyes widened, it said:

_**Hello, you can call me Jack**_

_**Not Joe, Bob, nor Mack**_

_**Find the girl whose name is Sue**_

_**Don't worry I'll give you a clue**_

_**Hurry up, you've got 24 hours**_

_**To find her look by the pretty red flowers**_

I stood frozen for a second, then with impossible speed I ran to the stairwell instead of the elevator. A second later I was standing in the lobby of Mick's building. The guy had to be around here somewhere. I looked around, all I saw was the man behind the desk, couldn't be him, and a man sitting on a bench reading a newspaper and drinking coffee, he was probably in his forties, he looked like a pretty nice guy. Possible, but unlikely.

When I returned to Mick's apartment and shut the door the first thing I asked was,"What's the girl's name?"

Mick looked at me, confused, then looked down at the case folder in his lap,"Susanne Parker,"he paused and added,"Also known as Sue."

I looked at the paper I still held in my hand, _Look for the girl whose name is Sue._

"This isn't good." I said and plopped down on the couch.

"What?"Beth questioned curiously.

I handed her the note. She read it and her eyes got wider and I could hear her heart beat faster.

"This guy is twisted." She finally said and passed the paper to Mick. As he read it, his lips curved down into a frown and he sighed.

"You're right, this is not good." He agreed.

I took the paper from him and reread it about five times,"What does this mean, 'To find her look by the pretty red flowers'?"

Mick thought for a moment and shrugged,"I dunno."

"And you call yourself a P.I.." I said jokingly.

Mick was about to argue, but Beth cut him off,"Roses."

"What?" Mick asked bewildered.

"'Pretty red flowers'. Roses."she repeated.

I thought about it. Of course. Roses. Duh.

"Oh, yeah...roses, I knew that." Mick said and coughed.

I rolled my eyes," 'Course you did Mick." I said and turned to Beth,"Good job, now we just gotta figure out which roses to look for. I mean, there's got to be like millions of them in L.A.."

We decided to drive around for awhile looking for anything suspicious involving roses. We found absolutely nothing. But we did see lots of roses, mostly in useless flower shops. We were gone for hours before we gave up.

When we arrived back at Mick's apartment building, the short man working behind the desk stopped us.

"Mr. St.John." He said beckoning us over,"someone left a message for you." He held out a small envelope, 'St.John' was written on it in scratchy handwriting.

Mick took it,"Who left it?"

The man shrugged," I didn't see him. He left it on the desk when I wasn't looking, sorry."

Without a word, Mick stepped away from the desk and tore open the envelope. After pulling out the small piece of paper inside he read it and handed it to me with a grim expression on his face.

I read the note in my hand and reread it again. On it was written:

_**Come on, you're too slow**_

_**Look for the roses tied with a yellow bow **_

_**Quickly, time is almost gone**_

_**Hurry, you've got 'til dawn**_

I immediately I checked my watch, two hours until dawn, I gulped. The guy said I had 24 hours before, he had shortened the time limit. Jerk.

After handing the note to Beth I started pacing, thinking. Beth was right, this guy is twisted. Writing these riddles, messing with us, it's frustrating, but if it wasn't a life or death situation, I'd say it was fun. I thought about the second line in the message we had just gotten. _Look for the roses tied with a yellow bow._ So, a bouquet of roses tied with a yellow bow. Roses. Yellow bow...

"I've got it!" I yelled spinning around to face my friends.

"What?!" asked Mick and Beth simultaneously.

"I know where to go!"

Before either of them could say anything I shot out the door.

Soon we were driving down the road. I had already given Mick directions. I had remembered this place I passed once called Rosethorn. It used to be a flower shop, now it's closed and boarded up. Good place to hide someone. But it's not the name of the place that convinced me that it was the right place, it's the sign for the store, it, of course, has the name, but it also has a picture of a bouquet of roses, tied with a yellow ribbon.

Finally we arrived 30 minutes later, an hour and a half left til dawn. Warily, we got out of the car after Mick parked next to the building. It was a small place surrounded only by a few other shops. The outside of it was painted yellow, and a mural of a garden was on the right side of the building. It's windows were boarded up and the door locked, well it _was _locked until someone picked the padlock and broke in.

I began running, wasting no time in finding this girl. I easily kicked the door down and stormed inside the retired flower shop. It was mostly empty except a few dusty shelves. I could hear muffled screams coming from the a room in the back of the building. I sprinted to it, Beth and Mick on my heels.

This time Mick got the door, he grabbed it off its hinges and flung it away.

"Ladies first." he said gesturing for me to go in.

"What a gentleman." I joked and ran in.

The girl, Sue, was bound to a chair by chains and a cloth was covering her mouth. She was screaming, tears streaked her face, she was scared to death.

"It's OK, we're here to help." I assured her and she calmed down... a little.

On her forehead was a post-it note. As Mick freed her from the chains and Beth untied the cloth I peeled the note off and read the now familiar scratchy handwriting:

_**Good job, you've won**_

_**But be ready 'cause I'm not done.  
**_


	14. Chapter 14

**Sorry I haven't updated in awhile I've been writing the first couple of chapters of a new story I'm writing, 'Unforgettable Adventure'. (go check it out!) anyways, here's chapter 14. It's gotta little introduction thingy at the beginning. :P**

-At a night club somewhere in L.A.-

Lillie Parker stormed out of the club fuming. She had just gotten into a fight with her boyfriend. Again. It had gone badly, for him at least. He is now her_ ex_-boyfriend. Lillie walked unexpectedly into a private room where her friend told her Nathan,her boyfriend, would be and caught him with another girl doing - well, you know. She had poured her drink all over him, telling him it's over. She smiled at the memory of the shock on his face.

She was now walking down the sidewalk, alone, in L.A., and not to mention at 3 in the morning. She wrapped her thin jacket tighter around her body. The streets were pretty much abandoned so it was really quiet. The click-clacking of her heels echoed loudly off the buildings.

Lillie paused for a second and decided it would be a good idea to go back to the club. She was planning to get a few of her friends to walk home with her. As they say, safety in numbers.

An odd feeling swept over her as she began walking the other way, some human instinct that told her someone was following her. Her pulse quickened and she felt the adrenaline rush. Too scared to look back she sped up, eventually running.

To her horror, one of her heels broke and she crashed to the ground. She scrambled to get back up, but a strong force pushed her back down. A gloved hand appeared in front of her face trying to cover her mouth. Lillie managed to let out a horrible scream before a sharp needle was stuck painfully into her arm leaving her unconscious. Too bad no one was around to hear it.

* * *

I stood looking out the window, watching as Sunday afternoon turned into Sunday evening. Beautiful pinks and oranges painted the sky. The sun was retiring for the day, the moon taking its place. I yawned sleepily. I had just woken up. I love being on my weekend schedule, able to sleep all day and stay out all night. Tomorrow was Monday though, the beginning of another school week. I hate school. Have I told you that before? 

Yesterday, about half an hour after we found Sue, she was returned safely to her parents. I have to admit, the was one tear-jerking moment. We never found the guy who kidnapped her. Poor kid, probably scarred for life. We - Mick,Beth, and I - had confronted the police with the issue of this kidnapper. Now they were on the job of searching for this guy. So are we. That note I found on Sue had proven that he wasn't going to stop at Sue, and we couldn't just sit back and let that happen to another girl. So now this case is going to consume most of our time, which means less time for personal things, like,let's see, Nick or Josef.

I glanced over at the clock that hung on the wall across from the door, next to a painting I got a looong time ago. I've acquired some pretty neat things over time. But anyways, the clock read 6:37. I'm supposed to meet up with Mick and Beth over at Mick's, as usual, at 7 o'clock. I grabbed my coat and keys to my car and walked out the door.

Almost an hour later, I finally made it to Mick's. Traffic was killer.

"You're late." Mick commented as I walked in the door, not bothering to knock.

"Traffic." I replied briefly and shrugged my coat off, then threw it on the back of the couch where Beth sat.

He nodded in understanding and handed me a folder,"Guess what."

I took the folder and opened it frowning. A picture of a girl was paper clipped to a piece of paper with info on her. Name: Lillie Parker; Age:19; Sex: Female;Missing since:Saturday night, one day ago; Last Seen: A night club called Pulse. Lots of other stuff was included but listing it here would take all day. I read it all quickly, memorizing every detail. I sighed and handed it back to Mick.

"How're we supposed to find her?" I asked.

Beth handed me an envelope,"This was found at her apartment."

I was shocked and scared at the same time to see my name was written on the front of the envelope, how did he know my name? I opened the envelope and pulled out the small slip of paper inside. I read it quietly and quickly:

**_I've got Lillie, you better come fast_**

**_hurry up or she won't last_**

**_you've got til the sun reaches the sky_**

**_if you don't make it she will die_**

**_I'll be sure to make it painful and slow_**

**_c'mon you better get up and go_**

**_now here's what you've got to do_**

**_come find her or I'll find you_**

**_she's hidden away safe and sound _**

**_very near holy ground_**

It was another stupid riddle from that psycho. This one was a lot scarier than the others, though. Especially that one line, _Come find her or I'll find you. _I was a little shaken by that, but I'm sure I could take him if he decided to come after me.

I guess Mick didn't think so.

"Kate, you'll be protected and watched 24/7. We can't let this guy get to you." he said firmly.

"No way," I said stubbornly," I can take care of myself Mick, I may look young and weak, but trust me, I'm much, much stronger than I look. Plus, I_ want _this crazy guy to come after me. That way we can get him."

"No." said Mick. It was his turn to be stubborn,"We're not gonna use you as bait."

Beth piped up,"Yeah, Kate. This guy, he could be a vampire. I mean, probably not, but it's better not to take risks, right?"

"Wrong." I said getting annoyed,"I'll be fine! This guy is not a vampire, trust me. We would of found twin holes in that other girl's neck if he was."

They both looked unconvinced,"Even if he's not a vamp he could still know about them, he could stake you or something when you least expect it. It could happen, Kate. All you gotta do is stay with one of us. We'll be working this case most of the time anyways, so it's not like we'll be butting into your personal life." Mick said.

Ugh, I give up. This is an argument I cant win. "Fine." I said with a sigh,"but, when you said 'stay with one of us' did you mean you or Beth? Well, no offense Beth, but uh, it wouldn't be any safer with you than being alone."

Mick smirked,"Not me or Beth. Me or Josef."

"Oh, ha ha." I said and rolled my eyes.

"So who do you choose?" Beth questioned.

I opened my mouth to say Mick, but then again..."Josef."

"I knew it." Mick said with another smirk and Beth smiled.

"Oh, please." I said rolling my eyes, again. It's become quite a habit around these guys,"I'm only picking him so you guys can have some _alone_ time when we're not working."

"Whatever you say, Kate." Beth said slyly.

"Shut up." I said. Of course I knew it was a lie too, but I wasn't about to openly admit it to them.

A few hours later, we had gotten a few addresses of some churches in areas that would be a good place to keep someone captive. You've probably caught on that in the note where the guy said something about her being near holy ground he meant a church, at least, I hope you already knew that. If not, don't quit your day job to become a detective.

We were all ready to go check out these churches when Beth got a call from her boss telling her she had to cover a story on some fire downtown, so we delayed our trip. After Beth left it was boring. Mick's kind of a boring guy sometimes. But don't tell him that. I decided I'd leave after I actually dozed off talking to him. On my way out, Mick reminded me that I had to stay at Josef's place and I sighed.

Once I got there I knocked on the door. A maid opened it and greeted me.

"Is Josef here?"

"Yes, Miss,"she replied and when she decided I wasn't a threat she added," right this way."

I followed her quietly. I had to take longer strides than usual to keep up, she was walking pretty fast. Finally she came to a nice,big,thick, locked door and I immediately took it in as Josef's office. She knocked timidly and when the door opened automatically she stuck her head in,"Mr.Konstantin, someone is here to see you."

I heard his voice easily when he spoke,"Thanks Brenda, let her in."

He probably smelled me right when I entered the house. I doubt he would have let anyone else in that quickly without seeing who they were.

The maid opened the door all the way and held it open until I walked in, then closed it.

"Hey..." I greeted uncertainly, I wasn't sure how he felt about me since the last time I saw him.

"Hey. I just got a call from Mick. He said I'm supposed to watch you til they find that kidnapper." he said and smiled,"This should be fun." Obviously he's gotten over our last encounter.

"You're not mad at me?" I asked a little confused.

He shrugged,"I don't dwell on the past."

I smiled and walked closer to his desk,"OK then," I said and leaned on his desk crossing my arms,"How's it going?"

"Pretty good, now that you're here."

"That was sweet Josef." I said surprised.

"Don't get used to it." he said and smirked.

"Ah, there's the Josef I know and love. Wait - I mean. The Josef I know. Not love. Heh." I stammered my face turning red with embarrassment. God, I'm losing my grip, that always seems to happen around him.

He smirked once again,"You love me, huh?"

I rolled my eyes,"I didn't mean to say that, Josef." I said," I _don't _love you, or like you in any way. In fact, I dislike you." I said that to him and to myself. I _don't _like Josef...right? Or do I? Hmm.

"Lying is bad for your health." He said getting up from his chair and walking closer to me.

"My health? Josef, I hate to break it to ya, but I'm dead." I said imitating his smirk.

He took a step towards me, but I walked around him towards the door. Before shutting the door I turned to him and smiled,"Bye, Josef." I said and walked out.

**See that little purple-ish 'Go' button down there? Press it...you know you want to 0.o hehe**


	15. Chapter 15

**Sorry it took me awhile to update. My mom handed me this Charles De Lint book and I've been reading it, like, non-stop. lol...I'm such a dork. Also sorry this chapter is so short, I have writer's block :S**

After leaving Josef's office I decided to call Beth to see if she's done working. We really needed to start investigating the case and looking for the girl. Of course the police were already looking for her, but I definitely wasn't going to sit back and eat popcorn while they did all the work. And anyways, we didn't have much time left. According to that riddle we have until ' the sun reaches the sky'. It's 9:00 p.m. and the sun rises at about 5 a.m., so we've got only about 8 hours until that girl is dead.

Pushing that morbid thought out of my mind completely I walked into Josef's living room and pulled out my cell phone. I dialed Beth's number and counted three rings until she finally picked up.

_"Hello?"_

"Hey Beth, It's Kate. Are you done with your story yet?"

_"Yeah, I'm on my way to Mick's as we speak."_

"OK, I'll see you in a few minutes then."

We hung up and I walked back to Josef's office to tell him I was leaving. I thought about not telling him. He would seriously get pissed if I did that. I smiled, making Josef mad would be fun, but I'll tell him anyways. I didn't bother to knock this time, I just walked right in since the door was already slightly open.

"Ah, back already?" he said with a smirk.

"Yep, miss me?"

Before he could answer I interrupted,"I'm just coming to tell you I'm going back to Mick's place."

He got up,"I'll drive you there."

"I can drive Josef."

"Yes, but you're not going out alone. Psycho killer out to get you remember?"

I glared at him,"I can take care of myself."

"I'm still going," he said firmly,"I'm not taking any chances."

"Why do you care?"

"Why do you think?" he said and brushed past me and out the door,"Let's go."

I rolled my eyes and followed.

It surprisingly only took us 15 minutes to get there, but that was probably because Josef went about 20 m.p.h. over the speed limit, dodging cars with his enhanced reflexes. If I wasn't in such a bad mood, I'd say it was fun. Neither of us spoke the whole drive there. Without a word I got out of his car and walked into the building where Mick lived. I could feel Josef watching me until I was completely inside.

A few minutes later I'm sitting on Mick's couch scanning the list of abandoned churches we made earlier. Luckily, most of them were in the L.A. area.

"OK," I said and handed the list back to Mick,"Let's go."

Six hours later and we've been to 17 out of 20 churches. Now we're heading to the next one, all exhausted and eager to get this over with.

This church is practically in the middle of nowhere. It's located a little ways outside of town. The only building for 3 miles. Odd place to put a church, dont'cha think?

When I got out of Mick's car I gazed at the building. There weren't any lights near here, so it was pretty dark. It would be really hard to see the church at all, that is, if I wasn't a vampire with amazing night vision. It looked almost exactly the same as all the other churches, except it looked like it hadn't been used for a lot longer than the others. For one, the bushes and plants were out of control, growing all over the place. Also, the stone walls of the church looked faded and eaten away by time and most of the stained glass windows were broken.

I was about to comment its run-down appearance to Mick and Beth, but stopped abruptly. I heard something. The slightest rustle, heavy breathing, struggling, a whimper.

Without thinking I ran up the big stone steps and up to the huge wooden doors. I pushed them open, surprisingly heavy even for me, and ran inside.

I stopped.

Why did I stop? Was it because the doors behind me shut and locked? No. Was it because Beth was shouting and Mick was unsuccessfully trying to break the door down? Nope. It had to be because I had a horrible feeling on the pit of my stomach about this place. No. That wasn't it.

It was because of the person standing before me, smiling evilly. Suddenly I felt sick.

I swear, If it was possible for my heart to actually break, it would have crumbled to pieces.

**Know who it is:) If you do, don't say it in a review 'cause you might be right and mess it up for everyone else. That wouldn't be cool, man, not at all. Lol. anyways, if you would be so kind as to review, I'd greatly appreciate it.**


	16. Chapter 16

**Hey! My writer's block is gone. yay! I hope you like this chapter. I'm not the best at fight scenes..sooo they're probably not all that great. But anyways..on with the story!**

I couldn't speak, I couldn't move, nor could I tear my eyes away from him. It was like my mind was separate from my body. While my body was frozen in place like a complete idiot, my mind was racing. I was in shock. I didn't want to believe that the person standing before me was actually there. I wanted to come up with some logical reason why he was here. I wanted to believe that I was stuck in some nightmare and that he wasn't the sick person behind all this. But you don't always get what you want. And though I didn't want to, I had to get my mind and body to accept that Nicholas Cardwell was actually the person standing in front of me.

"Why hello Kate, good to see you." he said with a smirk.

It took me a minute, but I finally found my voice,"I would say the same, but lying isn't my style." I was surprised and slightly proud to hear that my voice didn't shake at all.

Not in the least bit phased by my comment he continued speaking,"I can see you're shocked to see that I'm the 'psycho' behind the kidnapping. I would have thought you might have suspected me at least a little, 'cause who else has all that information about you, like where to find you and your name. You didn't even recognize my handwriting, and I thought you were a P.I.."

Becoming angrier by the second I suppressed the urge to rip his pretty little head off,"Why are you doing this? Actually, _how _are you doing this?"

"I'm doing it to get to you, to lure you in. As to how I'm doing this, well, let's just say it's really not that hard for a vampire." He smirked and waited for my reaction.

It's was at that moment I suddenly scented something, something I didn't notice before because of the state of shock I was in. Vampire. I looked around. The only person in here was Nick - besides me of course. But he isn't a vampire, I would have smelled that on him the moment he walked into the classroom days ago. I took a step toward him and sniffed. He was definitely a vamp, a really old vamp, stuck in 17 year old's body, that must suck.

He vamped out to prove it then returned to his human appearance "You see, I found this cure, a mortal cure as the few people who know about it call it. It temporarily turns a vampire into a human. That's why you didn't smell vampire on me before." he explained.

A mortal cure? When did this happen?

"What are you talking about? There's no cure for vampirism."

"Not until recently, and besides, it's more of a temporary cure, not _exactly_ a cure."

A cure for being a vampire. That's what I need. Even a temporary one. But I can't think about that now.

"Alright, that answers my question about how you're doing this, but the why part of it, that wasn't exactly a straight answer. And right now all I want is straight answers." I said angrily.

"Well you could say I'm working for someone..." he said with a smile and at that moment a person walked through the door near the back of the church that probably led to offices and things like that. The person was a man, well, technically a vampire who was the last person I wanted to see at the moment. Alexander.

"Oh great, why don't we invite a few other vamps and have a party?" I said sarcastically as Alexander walked past Nick (If that was his real name) and stood in front of me.

"You can hide your fear behind sarcasm all you want, but it's not going to work with me." he said smugly, which made me want wipe that arrogant smile off his face and cook him slowly over a big fire. No I do not have anger management issues.

"I'm not afraid of you!" I snapped and to emphasize I walked up to him and got into his face.

All he did was smirk and continue talking,"I should have killed you when I had the chance, you are very annoying."

"You won't have to worry about that much longer 'cause you'll be dead, along with you're stupid, moronic assistant." I said and Nick's smug grin immediately fell into a scowl and I smirked.

Alexander's smile remained though,"I'd like to see you try to take on two vampires who are both three times your age. You don't stand a chance."

My jaw clenched. I hate to admit it, but he was right, I couldn't fight these guys alone. I wouldn't last five minutes. I could still hear Mick banging helplessly at the door. Jeez, he's such an idiot, sometimes. He needs to use his brain!

"Use the window for God's sake!" I yelled to Mick and the banging stopped abruptly and I heard a quick command to Beth to stay put then suddenly Mick crashed through the window nearest me. In seconds he was standing next to me.

"Even with your young friend you can't beat me." Alexander said with a smirk.

Without warning I pounced on Alexander like an angry tiger and before he could even process my actions through his brain I had him pinned firmly on the ground,"Maybe not, but I sure can try."

Alexander brought his legs up and kicked me off of him. I flew backwards and hit the double doors behind me. At that moment Mick lunged at Nick and began fighting with him, even though he's pretty young he was doing a good job of beating the crap out of Nick.

I turned my attention back to Alexander. In the blink of an eye I was in front of him. I gave him a crooked smile before punching him in the face so hard he flew backwards twenty feet. He got up quickly and brought his hand up to his jaw, which was in a very sick position. He snapped it back in place with a little cry of pain and sprinted towards me.

I braced myself to dodge, but I misjudged his speed. He came at me with a flying kick and hit me in the face. I felt my nose crush under impact. Blood gushed out reminding me how hungry I was.

Alexander smirked and I lunged at him. He sidestepped, which is what I was expecting, I changed direction with inhuman speed and hit him with a roundhouse kick. He flew backwards and landed on his arm with a sickening crack.

He quickly got up and repositioned his arm so it could heal. I could tell he was pissed. He jumped high in the air so fast my eyes could barely keep up. He came down on top of me with his legs locked in place before I could react. He had me pinned on the ground now, straddling me. He began punching at my face, and let me tell you, it hurt. Really bad.

I struggled to get up, but he had one arm pinning me down by the neck and he was pretty strong. I started losing strength and I went limp. He stopped punching me, and through one of my swollen eyes I saw him smile and it made me feel sick. He got up and started kicking me endlessly. He broke almost all my ribs and probably severed my spine. I was in so much pain. Soon I was just numb to it. My wounds were healing slowly due to the lack of blood.

I felt so helpless. I couldn't even fight back. Alexander is going to kill me. I'll die in this stupid run-down church.

No. I can't let that happen.

With the very little amount of strength I had, I grabbed his ankle as he went to kick me for, like, the fiftieth time. The surprise was evident on his face as I pulled down and he fell to the ground. With sluggish movements I crawled over to him pinned him down with one knee on his stomach and one on his neck. It hurt so bad to move, but I tried to block it out as I reached over to a small table. I broke off a leg of it and turned back to Alexander. I smiled, which hurt _really _bad, and shoved the make-shift stake right into his heart. I moved away from him, shock frozen on his face, and sat against the wall for a second.

Mick and Nick (ha, that rhymes) were fighting about thirty feet away. Mick looked pretty beat-up, but Nick looked worse. Even though Nick had him beat by at least 200 or so years, age wise, Mick was kicking his butt. He was a bit more clever while fighting, if not as strong.

I slowly got to my feet and made my way to the broken window Mick came through. I found a piece of glass and walked, well limped over to the fighting vampires. Nick didn't notice me until the last minute. Mick had punched him pretty heard, sending him flying towards me. When he got close enough a slashed the sharp glass at him aiming for his neck. His eyes widened, he tried to dodge but couldn't. I cut his head clean off.

I dropped the glass and looked down at his body, "That's what you get, you idiotic, lying, piece of -"

Before I could finish that sentence I fell to the ground very ungracefully and blacked out.

**Did you like it?! Please review and tell me! Oh yeah, um I know I mentioned the mortal cure and stuff, well let's pretend that Mick hasn't heard of it yet. OK? OK.**


	17. Chapter 17

**Wow I'm updating faster than usual aren't I? haha, well I guess that's a good thing. And to 12 Withering Roses: Well I meant to describe that bit of glass better, It came from a ridiculously large window, meaning it was a ridiculously large piece of glass, also not to mention a ridiculously sharp piece of glass :P Anyways, This chapter is kind of a filler I think 'cause nothing really important happens, maybe some stuff at the beginning like useful info, but other than that it's nothing, I'm writing it to give me more time to think up some more cases and stuff that will happen...liike somebody dying? Hmm. That's it! I'm gonna kill off one of the characters! mwahaha - lol. So yeah, be ready for that. OK, I'll stop this long rambling Author's Note and let you read.**

I awoke lying uncomfortably in the back seat of Mick's car. I still felt the pain all over my body, but it seemed a little better - just a little. My head felt like somebody stuck it in a blender, hit me on the head with a hammer multiple times, then decided it would be fun to crush it with a one hundred pound weight over and over again. In other words, it hurt like hell.

I propped up on my elbow and groaned when a fresh wave of pain hit my body. Hearing my pained sounds Beth turned in her seat to look at me, "Finally you're awake." she said with a smile.

I nodded and grimaced, I think my neck was broken. Instead I tried to talk, "What'd I miss?"

Mick answered before Beth could, "Well, I locked Alexander in the church and then I..." He paused for a moment, "Er... set the church on fire."

I almost laughed, "You know...you could've just...cut his head off."

Mick gripped the steering wheel tightly until his knuckles turned white, "I wanted him to die painfully and slow." He said through clenched teeth. Revenge, much?

Ummm..."Mick...you scare me sometimes." I said staring at him.

He turned and gave me a crooked smile, "Heh. Sorry."

I shrugged, which hurt _so_ bad. I really need to stop using body language.

Then I remembered something, "Um, Mick."

"Hm?"

"What about the girl, what's-her-face?"

"Lillie?" He laughed, "You didn't think I'd forget about her did you?"

"Maaybe."

Beth spoke for him, "Don't worry, we got her out of the church before we set the place on fire and then we called the police, telling them it was an accident and the kidnapper was dead. We waited until they came and got her then we left."

"OK, now that that's settled..." I trailed off as I repositioned myself more comfortably on the seat and dozed off.

When we got to Mick's apartment I insisted on walking up there on my own without help, but as soon as I slid out of the car and stood up, my knees buckled and I fell to the ground. So much for that. Mick ended up carrying me, much to my embarrassment.

I'm now sitting on his couch with Beth awaiting his return from his useless kitchen with some blood. He came back with about three bags, not bothering with a glass and handed one to me. I drained two and a half before I got all that I needed. And slowly but surely I felt my bruises fade, bones heal, and cuts close up.

I took a quick shower after that and headed back downstairs to where Mick and Beth sat talking. When I plopped down on the couch opposite them I asked, "Can I go home now?"

"Nope." Mick replied.

"What? Why not?"

"'Cause I'm not exactly sure whether or not Alexander actually died in that fire. He could've escaped for all we know."

"You're being paranoid!"

"Better safe than sorry." He replied. I hate that saying.

"Fine." I grumbled.

"You'll stay at Josef's for a couple of days until we're sure."

"I still don't understand why I - "

"Kate." Mick interrupted me with the Look.

I groaned, "Alright. Then I'm leaving, I need some sleep." Lots and lots of sleep.

I left and called a cab to Josef's place. When I got there I didn't even knock, I just pulled out my handy-dandy pick lock kit and let myself in. I made my way to the nearest couch, which was in his living room, and curled up and fell asleep.

I was aroused by a sound between a grunt and a growl then a big THUD. I sat up and yawned sleepily, looking around for the noise. When I saw it, I burst out laughing. Josef was sprawled on the floor. Apparently he tripped over my shoes I had kicked off earlier. He very gracefully rose to his feet with a look of anger on his face and I stopped laughing. Not 'cause I was scared, but because I wanted to be able to hear what he was about to say.

"Does my house look like a hotel?! You can't just waltz in and sleep on my couch without permission and leave your cheap shoes lying around!" Oh no he didn't.

"My shoes aren't cheap! Maybe for you, 'cause you have a ridiculous amount of money, but for people with normal salaries, they're pretty expensive. And besides, _anyone _could mistake your house for a hotel, 'cause, you know, it's HUGE!"

He growled, "What are you doing here anyways?"

"Didn't Mick call you?"

"Nope."

I rolled my eyes,"OK, I'll fill you in." I paused coming up with the right words, "So, it turns out, Nick, my human friend, is - was, the kidnapper. Alexander showed up and me and Mick fought them. I cut Nick's head off and Mick lit the church on fire with Alexander in it, but he's not sure if he's actually dead or not, so I'm supposed to stay here for a couple of days."

Josef stared at me for a moment,"Wow, that was blunt."

I smiled, "It's a gift."

He smiled, and I mean a real smile not one of those I'm-rich-and-so-much-better-than-you smiles and sat down on the couch next to me and propped his feet up on the coffee table, then he got the remote, turned the TV on and started flipping through channels.

"So...can I go back to sleep now?" I asked staring at him.

"I'm not stopping you." Josef replied without looking away from the TV.

I shrugged and curled up on my side of the couch and eventually fell into a deep undisturbed sleep.

When I finally woke up I almost panicked. I was in a freezer, and I didn't know why, or how I got there. Also, I was completely naked. I put two and two together and realized Josef must've carried me up here, which _also_ meant he undressed me! He just crossed the line there.

I found my clothes outside of the freezer door and pulled them on quickly. I made my way downstairs and to his office and stopped for a second at the door to make sure he was in there before I made a dramatic entrance, and he was. I barged in and walked up to his desk until he was arms length away. He looked up at me curiously.

"Let me make this clear." I said pointing a finger at him rudely, "You. Do not. Undress me. Ever." I poked him in the chest with each syllable, "got it?"

He smirked, "Ma'am, yes ma'am."

"Good." I said satisfied,"Now that we have that understanding between us..." I plopped down onto the couch. Josef watched me, amused, for a second then turned back to his work. I looked around his office, I had to admit the man had taste. He had some pretty old and expensive art mounted on the walls and a few shelves, which were mahogany, I think, correct me if I'm wrong. His office consisted of one couch, a table, some chairs, bookshelf, one big desk, a clock, a computer, and two vampires.

Suddenly I became really bored, so I got up and started pacing, since there was nothing else to do. Josef looked up from his work and watched me for minute before saying, "Will you stop that?"

I grinned, "Sure." I stopped pacing and sat down in one of the chairs that were in front of his desk. And started tapping my foot loudly.

He glared at me, "You are very annoying."

I leaned in so I was very close to his face and said, "You've got two more days with me, bud. Get used to it."

**As I said, filler. So sorry if it wasn't that great. If you reviewed, that would totally boost my self-confidence and maybe, **_**just maybe, **_**I'll be able to write more ;)**


	18. Chapter 18

**I decided to do one more chapter with just Josef & Kate, 'cause I can't really think of another case they could go on at the moment...any suggestions?**

It's been exactly a day and a half since I began staying at Josef's place. At first it was really boring 'cause I couldn't go anywhere, besides Mick's of course. But Mick was way more boring, he hasn't been getting any interesting cases either, just husbands who want him to follow their wives around or wives who want him to follow their husbands around, and one missing persons case when a teen went missing, but it was a false alarm, the kid was just out all night with friends. He even got a case where an old lady came in asking him to find her cat. Of course it was a paying job, so Mick took it, found the cat in a tree, got it down, and collected his large sum of money. After about half of the first, or second day, depends on how you look at it, it got less boring being around Josef. He took off from work and stayed home while I was here and we had fun...no, not that kind of fun, you sick-minded people. We messed around a lot and constantly teased each other and got into fights. The fights didn't last long though. We talked a lot too, he got my life story, I got his. He is one _very _interesting vampire.

I felt my feelings for him grow during this time, which scared me a little. I hate him for making me like him so much! I didn't want to come on to him or anything. I know he thought I was pretty and he liked me, but I can't help but feel like he only sees me as a friend ever since I made it clear that I didn't like him, it seemed so long ago when he kissed me and I told him I couldn't be with him, and now, to think I said that because of Nick...ugh. Anyways, that's one reason I didn't want to tell him how I felt, it could possibly ruin what we already had, or it could make it a lot better, but I'm a pessimist so I don't think that way naturally.

I sat in Josef's living room and thought about all of this on the day I finally get to go home, but I couldn't seem to feel happy about it. I wanted to stay here longer, with Josef. I sighed and looked over at him, he was on his phone a few feet away, straightening things out at work. I could've listened to the conversation if I wanted, but business is so boring. I don't see how Josef goes through it all _everyday_.

He suddenly snapped something into the phone angrily and shut it without waiting for a response. He sighed and came back to sit next to me on the couch. Before he had gotten the phone call we were talking about the history and evolution we've seen. It would have been a very dull conversation if I was talking to anyone besides Josef. He's seen a lot of things in his lifetime. It amazes me how much has changed in my lifetime too.

Josef propped his feet up and looked over at me,"Where were we?"

"Um, I think you were saying something about the inventions that have been so helpful compared to when you were a lot younger." I replied.

"Ah yes. When I was just 100 years old..." He continued talking about how difficult it was as a vampire way back then and I barely listened. I watched him as he talked, every movement he made. He really was a gorgeous man. My thoughts went back in time to when he kissed me, I wished I could do that again. Why can't I? I thought hard about this. Maybe he hadn't abandoned all feelings he had for me. But what if he did? And then again...what's life without taking risks, right?

Suddenly I sprang at him, too fast to follow with human eyes and stopped him in mid-sentence with my lips on his. He didn't pull away or push me off of him in disgust, this was a good sign. I could feel his shock at first, but then, he actually deepened the kiss by wrapping his arms around me and pulling me closer to him.

We kissed for a long time, it felt like a long time anyways, time wasn't important while I was kissing him. Finally we pulled away and stared at each other, I got lost in beautiful brown eyes. The expression on his face was unreadable.

Suddenly he smiled a crooked smile that looked like it just belonged on his face and said,"You are a very good kisser."

"Like I haven't heard that one before." I said grinning, we were still holding on to each other.

"Have you now?"

"Josef, I'm 135 years old, I've kissed plenty of guys before."

"I bet none of them are better kissers than me." He smirked.

"You're probably right." I said and leaned in and kissed him again, more passionately this time, trying to get my feelings across.

When we stopped I made eye contact with him,"Josef, I like you..." I paused and added,"a lot."

"I like you a lot too, Kate." He said seriously.

I rested my head on his chest and closed my eyes, committing this moment to memory, never wanting to forget it. I wanted to stay like this forever. I probably could've, if Josef's phone didn't ring. Stupid cell phones.

I sighed and Josef groaned,"I'm not answering it."

"No, you should, something could be going wrong." I said and tried to get off of him, but he tightened his arms around me in a grip like iron that I couldn't escape even with my strength.

"Let it." He said casually.

"There could be a crisis." I said looking up at him.

He kissed my forehead,"So?"

"You could lose a ton of money from it," I said even though the phone already stopped ringing.

He smiled warmly, which you don't see often,"You're worth it."

I smiled at him and lay my head back on his chest.

"You know what?" I said glancing up at him.

"What?" he said running his fingers down my cheek.

"I don't like you," I said and his face became very confused and he looked kind of hurt.

"Josef...I love you."

His expression changed completely. He looked relieved and he smiled his infectious smile again and I couldn't help but return it as he lifted my head up. He kissed me once again, putting lots of feeling into it as I had done before and finally replied,"I love you too."

**Sorry this chapter was so short, that would be 'cause I don't write very good romance. I'm only 13, cut me some slack. :D**


	19. Chapter 19

**I thought up a case! Yay! lol. **

I spent all of the next day with Josef instead of going home that day. We did the same things we did the last two days, except when we fought, the fights usually ended with us kissing. It felt good to finally let Josef know how I feel about him. It also felt good to know Josef felt the same way about me. I would have stayed at his house longer, but Josef needed to go to work and I've missed enough school as it is, so now I'm on my way home.

While I was driving I was hit with a sudden realization. It's over. This whole scary-bad-guy-out-to-get-me thing. It's all over. As far as I know there's no one else out there who wants revenge on me. Finally, I can just investigate normal cases that have _nothing_ to do with me. Or so I thought.

Instead of going home I decided to stop by Mick's and see if there's any jobs we can take. When I got there I knocked on the door a couple of times, not bothering to knock loudly since Mick would be able to hear it just as clearly.

The door opened and Mick stepped aside for me to walk in, "Hey Kate, have fun at Josef's?"

I walked into his apartment and took off my coat, "Yes, actually." I said smiling.

Mick raised his eye brows, "What did you do?"

I punched him in the arm, "Not what your thinking."

"Alright, what'd you do then?" he asked curiously.

"Nothing." I said sitting down on the couch.

Mick sat down across from me, "Whatever you say."

"Where's Beth?" I said changing the subject. Like I was going to tell Mick that me and Josef confessed our love for each other.

"Um, I don't know," he said, "I don't keep tabs on where she is at all times."

I gave him a sideways glance, he looked uncomfortable, "Sure you don't."

He was about to argue, but there was a knock on the door.

"I'll get it." I said and began to get up.

He was at the door before I could blink, "My apartment, my door, I'm getting it."

I rolled my eyes and sat back down angling myself towards the door. Mick opened it to reveal a young girl, probably about 14 years old.

"I need help." She said to Mick weakly.

"Come on in," Mick said opening the door wide enough for her to walk through, "What's your name sweetie?"

The girl walked in and stood near the couch I was sitting in, "Taylor..."

"What do you need help with Taylor?" I said getting up from my seat and walking over to her.

"My best friend, she's missing." She said timidly.

"Have her parent's reported it to the police?" Mick asked her.

Taylor's eyes began to water, "They're dead."

Mick and I exchanged glances and Taylor continued, "Her parents were murdered a day ago, Hayley, my best friend, went missing. The police think she just ran away in shock...I think the monster took her."

"The monster?" I questioned.

"Hayley's parents were killed my a monster, their bodies were ripped apart, like by an animal, but it was done by a person," Taylor said and a tear escaped her eyes and rolled down her cheek freely, "And their blood was drained completely."

I fell back onto the couch in shock, this reminded me all too well of something that happened to me when I was a kid, 13 to be exact. My parents, like Hayley's, were killed by a monster, a vampire. And to add to the similarities, I was kidnapped by the murderer. I was kept for about a year before I was found. I suffered from major blood loss because the vampire had fed from me. When I was found, I was near death. My savior was a vampire also, but he had no intention to feed from me. At first, I was scared of him, but I warmed up to him. His name was Phillip. He was a 356 year old vampire, but only looked to be about 20. I stayed with him since I had nowhere else to go and when I turned 17 years old, he turned me because he loved me and wanted to be with me forever. And now he's dead and I killed him. Not to mention this could be happening all over again for some other girl.

"Kate?" Mick said coming over to me, "Something wrong?"

I ignored his question and walked over to Taylor and put my hand on her shoulder, "Don't worry Taylor, we'll find her, I promise."

"Thank you." She said and hugged me.

I patted her back comfortingly, "You need to go home now and we'll contact you as soon as we get something."

She nodded and pulled away, "Thank you so much." She said and handed me a piece of paper, "this is my phone number. Please don't forget to call."

"I won't." I reassured her, "Do you need a ride home?"

Taylor shook her head, "I have money for a cab."

She walked out the door with a small wave and Mick closed it behind her.

"Wow, I've never seen that nice side of you before," Mick said taking back his place on the couch across from me.

I ignored his comment, "The stuff that's happening to Hayley right now, the things she's probably going through, the same thing happened to me as a kid." I said looking down at my hands "I'm not letting it happen again."

He looked at me sympathetically, "That's why you're so determined to find her." It wasn't a question.

I nodded, "I can't let what happened to me, happen to another girl."

"What happened to you exactly?" Mick questioned.

I looked up at him making eye-contact, "I don't want to talk about it."

He stared at me for a second, "OK, let's get started then."

I nodded and got up from the couch while Mick got his laptop to look up more on the double murder of Hayley's parents. This was one case I am _not_ going to give up on.

**I'm not too happy with this chapter, I don't think I did good writing it. Oh well, please review and tell me what you think!**


	20. Chapter 20

**This chapter is mostly describing the night Kate's parents died, and other things about her past. Hope I do good with it. I'm making it up as I go along writing this chapter. I felt like you needed to know more about her past.**

I remember the day of my parent's murder as clearly as if it had happened only hours ago instead of when I was 13 years old. It was a really traumatic event. I was in the room I shared with my sister, Jessica, trying to sleep, while my parent's were talking in the main room downstairs. I listened to their voices for a long time before I finally began to drift off. I closed my eyes and waited for the sleep to come, but it never did. Something felt off, wrong even. Suddenly, a loud crash erupted from downstairs, I heard my mother scream and my father shouting at the intruder. I climbed out of bed quickly and went over to Jess's bed. I shook her awake and put a finger to my lips, signaling for her to be quiet. I dragged the 7-year-old out of bed and over to our small closet. I opened the wooden door, careful not to make a sound and pushed Jess gently inside. Before I could shut the door she whispered shakily to me, "Katie, don't go! What's happening?"

I shushed her, "I'll be back, I have to see if mother and father are okay."

Before Jess could protest, I shut the door quietly and tip-toed to the open door of our room. BANG! the shot rang loudly throughout the whole house making me jump. I recognized the sound of my father's shotgun. He has terrible aim, I hope he didn't miss. I continued to walk silently out of the room and down the dark hallway. I picked up the candle from the table near the door and made my way to the staircase. At the top of the stairs I paused, I could no longer here screaming or shouting, and that worried me. I could barely see through the archway that led into the main room. I went halfway down the steps to get a better look.

I froze. My candle dropped out of my hands, snuffing out as it hit the floor, the candle holder clattered down the stairs. That was possibly that worst mistake of my life. But I didn't care, because I felt like my life was already over anyways. Because lying on the floor were my mother and father, both unmoving and lifeless. My father lay crumpled near the old chair he always sat in and my mother was being held by some man, no, monster, who was bent over her, I couldn't see what he was doing because of the angle I was at. He stopped whatever it was abruptly to turn and stare at me, the only adverb I can think of here is, hungrily. Blood dripped from his mouth and I felt my stomach lurch. I stayed shocked and speechless for a second longer before I ran for it. Somehow I knew it was a useless attempt to try to run from him, but I did anyways. 

The monster rose from my mother's body and walked towards me, knowing I couldn't go far. I ran back up the stairs, but stopped before I could go any farther. I suddenly realized what I was doing by running back to my room. I was leading him right to my little sister. I knew I was going to die either way, anyways. I'd rather him kill just me and let my little sister live. So I turned, my heart felt like it was going to beat out of my chest, and faced the monster. I was scared to death, but I still was able to stay where I was and not run back to my room where Jess was hiding. The monster licked his lips and I shuddered. He appeared in front of me way too fast for my eyes to follow, making me fall backwards. He grabbed my shoulders before I fell and pulled me closer to him to where I was looking over his shoulder, giving him full access to my neck.

I heard him sniff me and say, "Delicious."

I whimpered and he laughed, "I won't kill you, little one. Not yet."

A moment later I felt two sharp pains on the side of my neck. I felt my blood being pulled free of my body, quenching the thirst of this monster of a vampire. I screamed at first, but soon found my voice no longer worked. I went limp in his steel grip and closed my eyes as my blood was drained. Soon I felt too weak to hold on to consciousness any longer and let it slip.

I awoke in a dark room with no windows. I tried to move my right arm to prop myself up, but it was chained to the wall making it impossible. I dragged myself towards the wall and brought myself to a sitting position. I sat for a long time letting my eyes adjust slowly to the darkness. Soon I was able to make out the interior of the room. It consisted of absolutely nothing except a large wooden door with a barred hole in it big enough to look through, but of course I couldn't look through it because I was on the other side of the room and couldn't move more than a foot from the wall.

So the monster didn't kill me as I expected. He's keeping me as a prisoner, probably feed off of me. I shuddered at the thought. I was being kept prisoner by a vampire. I would much rather have died.

I was alone for so long in there that I was sure I would go insane sooner or later. But I didn't. The time there gave me a long time to think. I mostly thought about Jess the first week or so. Hoping she was OK. I was determined she was, I could feel it. Everyday I prayed for her, knowing she was alone, her whole family gone. She was probably in some orphanage, she would get adopted quickly, she was a good little girl, any parents dream. 

I also cried alot. I mourned over my parents and also the loss of my life. True, I was still alive, but this was not the life I wanted, to be the breakfast, lunch, and dinner for a vampire. The monster came in everyday and fed from me, everyday I fought him. I kicked and punched and screamed, but he still got his meal. This went on for months before I gave up trying. I no longer fought him, I merely sat and let him drink in peace. I didn't even look at him. My eyes always vacant. I felt that I had lost my soul while I was there. I no longer felt any emotions. No happiness, no sadness, not even fear. I was a zombie. For a year this vampire kept me. I stayed holed up in that room. Oblivious to the outside world. 

Until one day, another vampire found me, a good vampire. He scented me while passing the house, he took pity on me and rescued me. He staked the monster and appeared at the prison door one night. He kicked the door down and yanked the chain out of the wall. Gently, he scooped me up in his arms and carried me away from my prison. I was still lifeless when he rescued me. I didn't pay attention as he set me a safe distance away from the large house where I'd been trapped, neither did I pay attention when he brought out a match, lit it, and set the house on fire. 

Phillip, as he later introduced himself as, brought me to his home. He cared for me and never once did he feed from me. I was very under fed while I was imprisoned by the monster, so Phillip fed me twice as much as normal to strengthen me. I never talked to him, nor did I ever thank him. I barely acknowledged his presence. That is, until one morning I woke up, a year and a half of being with Phillip, and everything that had happened sunk in. I began to cry and it turned to full on sob. Phillip heard me and came to hold me in his arms while I wept.

"It's okay, you're fine, you're safe, it's okay." He chanted that over and over in his silky voice, comforting me.

Suddenly, my thoughts were coherent. The emotions that crashed down on top of me were overwhelming. I cried for a long time. But not with sadness, with relief. I thanked Phillip over and over for saving me after that. I began to think about things that I never thought of during my zombie-like state. Like my sister, Jessica. I set out to search for her, with Phillip's help. It took me 4 years to find her. The year was 1875 after all, it's not like I could look her up in a phone book.

Two years after I resurfaced from the dark pool I was in for so long, Phillip turned me into a vampire. I had fallen in love with my knight in shining armor and decided he was worth spending eternity with. When I found Jess it was one of the happiest days of my life. We hugged and cried and talked for days. One night she saw Phillip feeding. She came over to the house Phillip and I lived in and discovered him feeding on a young woman. She came to the conclusion that he was a vampire and she went out and bought a stake, planning to kill him. Unfortunately, on that same night, I had decided to tell her that I was a vampire. And... you know the rest.

After Jessica died and I killed Phillip, I was devastated. The thought of suicide came to mind many times, but that was hard for a vampire. I tried to live my life normally. I went into depression the first 30 years or so. And since I looked like I was 17 I decided to attend school. I stayed in one school for 3 years, 10th - 12th grade, then I moved to another. Sometimes I went back to a school I'd been to before, with a different name. The school I'm at now I've been to 6 different times, and this is the last time I'll spend here, so I'm using my real name. The only reason I stay in school is to be around other people. I can't stand to be alone for long, I had enough alone time when I was trapped with that monster.

I still shudder at the thought of it. Everyday I'm still haunted with his face, blood dripping from his mouth. The image of my slaughtered parents stuck firmly in my mind. I can't remember much from when I was a zombie, it's very hazy. It really showed how much Phillip cared by keeping me with him even though I had never talked or even looked at him for a long time. I miss him so much.

"Heellooo? Earth to Kate." Mick's voice brought me out of my trip down memory lane.

"Wha? Huh?" I looked at him confused for a second, trying to remember what we were doing.

"I think I know how to find our killer." He said.

Oh that's right, we were investigating a case!

**I hope that wasn't boring! I thought it was sad. It was, kinda, but maybe that's just me.**


	21. Chapter 21

**Yay! Chapter 21! :P**

I walked alongside Josef as we approached a rather large house where Hayley Collins's parents were murdered and she was kidnapped. Mick and I were walking to his car earlier to come here when Josef drove up. He insisted on tagging along saying he was bored and had nothing to do. Mick was reluctant at first, thinking Josef would be a distraction, but he eventually gave in.

Josef wrapped his arm tightly around my waist pulling me closer to him as we walked. I looked over at him and smiled and he grinned brightly back. From behind us, Mick coughed loudly. We stopped walking and glared at him.

"Something you need to tell me?" He questioned raising his eyebrows.

"We don't _need _to tell you anything," Josef replied, his arm was still firmly attached to my waist. I leaned into him more comfortably and he smirked.

Mick walked past us, "We'll talk about this later."

"OK, _Dad," _I muttered. Josef laughed and Mick ignored it.

When we reached the front door we had to duck under the yellow crime scene tape, Josef let go of me reluctantly to do so, but immediately placed his arm back where it was once we were inside. The police were done investigating the scene, so no one was here today. Which made it a lot easier for us. Suddenly a totally irrelevant thought occurred to me.

"Mick," I said pausing for him to turn around, "You never told me where Beth was."

He quirked an eyebrow, "Is that really relevant to the situation at hand?"

"No..."

He sighed, "She's at a birthday party for one of her friends. It's at some mansion, her friend is pretty rich."

"How come you're not with her?" I asked as we walked further into the abandoned home.

"I...um, didn't want to go," He replied slowly.

"No really, Mick. Why aren't you there with her? You go _everywhere _with her, you're so overprotective" I said staring at him. Did he just blush? ...Yep. What's so embarrassing?

"Well, it's a big party... a lot people are there. Lots of Beth's friends. Beth's _girl _friends..."

Josef laughed out loud, "Mick, are you afraid of women?"

"No!" He replied hotly, "It's just... when I'm with Beth around her friends, they always _stare_ at me. They start talking about me, saying things I would rather _not_ hear."

I laughed, "What do they say?"

"Nothing I would like to repeat," Mick grumbled.

"Just tell us one thing," I said smiling.

"No," He said in a final tone, "Let's go, we have a job to do."

"Aw, you suck the fun out everything!" I pouted.

"Let's _go._" He demanded. With that he turned and walked into the living room.

"Fun sucker," I mumbled following him. Josef laughed at my choice of words.

The living room was a mess. Blood everywhere: the floor, walls, chair, and couch. Somebody was being a messy eater. Surprisingly, the bodies hadn't been removed yet. Instead, they were covered with tarp, probably still in the same place they were killed. Mick walked to the nearest body and carefully removed the tarp and set it to the side, then did the same with the other one. They were both pretty messed up, their necks were completely ripped up, like the vampire feeding from them was ravenous. I would have said he was feral, but the cuts weren't ragged enough. I breathed in deeply through my nose. I felt my fangs cut into my bottom lip as I smelled all the blood. Surprisingly, the blood that covered everything wasn't the man and woman's blood. Don't worry, it's not Hayley's blood either. It was vampire blood.

"Wow, how did they manage to do that?" I wondered aloud.

Mick shook his head, "I don't know, but they really cut him up."

I began walking around the room. Josef stood in the doorway, watching me. I looked up at him and grinned and he gave a brilliant answering smile. I resumed looking around and came upon a table covered in some more tarp. Curiously, I pulled away the tarp and it fell slowly to the ground. On the table was a sword, it looked like one of those one's that people buy on ebay to keep in a collection. It was covered in blood, I wasn't surprised to smell it as the vampire's.

"I bet my life – or, uh, death – that they used this," I said holding up the sword for them to see.

Josef and Mick simultaneously raised their eyebrows, "You'd have to be pretty skilled to be able to slice a vampire up like he apparently was," Josef commented, now leaning on the door frame with his arms crossed.

I shrugged, "Maybe they do fencing or something..."

Something was bothering me. I'm not sure what it was, but... this all seemed so familiar. I turned, the sword still in my hand, and walked over to the doorway where Josef was. I examined the scene carefully and suddenly realization hit me like a ton of bricks. This scene was identical to what I saw all those years ago when my parents were murdered. A man and a woman, parents, laying slaughtered on their living room floor. The image of my mother and father flashed through my mind and I grimaced. But this couldn't have been committed by the same vampire! He's dead, right? He could've escaped the fire... he could be alive! And here in L.A., committing the same crime all over again.

"No!" I denied my thoughts vehemently.

"What's wrong?" Josef asked suddenly, and I realized I had said that out loud.

"Nothing," I said turning to smile at him, but it didn't quite reach my eyes.

Unconvinced he asked me again, "What's wrong?"

"It's nothing really," I reassured him.

Suddenly, I realized something. Why was all this stuff still here? The bodies and the sword... shouldn't the police have put the bodies in the morgue and taken the sword in as evidence?

I got my answer when suddenly something was shoved into my back, feeling suspiciously like a gun barrel.

"What are you doing here? This is a crime scene," A deep male voice said behind me.

Mick answered for me, "I'm a private investigator, and that's my assistant. Oh, and he's my friend," He holding up his credentials.

I wondered why he still had a gun sticking into my back, when I realized it must be because I'm holding a bloody sword in my hand.

"Oh, I promise I didn't murder anyone, this is just evidence," I said with a smirk and setting the sword on the ground.

He pulled the gun away, and I turned around to look at him. He looked like he was in his early twenties and no later than that. He was a tall man, about a head taller than me, but that's not saying much, I'm kinda short. He has messy dark brown hair - not the bad kind of messy, the cool looking kind - and beautiful green eyes. He wasn't that bad looking, pretty hot actually, but don't tell Josef I said that.

He smiled at me with perfect white teeth when I turned and faced him and held out his hand, "Hi, I'm Eric McKarthy, part of the CSI team."

Josef growled, only audible to vampires. I guess he didn't like the way Eric was looking at me. I shook his hand briefly. Now I know why the evidence and bodies are still here, apparently the CSI haven't checked it out yet.

"Nice to meet you Eric, I'm Kate." I said with a polite smile, "that's my _boyfriend _Josef."

Eric's smile faltered a little when I identified Josef as my boyfriend. Josef smiled wider though. He came over and put his arm around me again.

Mick coughed, getting Eric's attention, "I guess we'll go then, let you guys do your job."

"Right," Eric nodded and walked past me and Josef, bending down to pick up the sword. He turned to me again, "Try not to leave your fingerprints on anymore of the evidence again, please," He said grinning.

"I'll keep that in mind," I replied with a quick smile.

Suddenly 3 other people entered the room and started looking around and conversing with each other. The rest of the CSI team I presumed.

We left quickly, getting out of the professionals' way. I wished them good luck with the case on my way out. They would need a lot of that to solve _this _case. I doubt they would, the only possible thing that could have killed them would be a vampire or a big dog, but they would soon come to the conclusion that the teeth marks weren't right for a dog, and then they'd be left with a vampire. And they would add it to a stack of unsolved cases, because there's no such thing as vampires, is there?

**Review!! I want at least 3 reviews! If I get 5 or more I'll update a lot quicker! Please and thank you!**


	22. Chapter 22

**Heh... So sorry I haven't updated in awhile, like, a month. :P My excuse this time is a severe case of writer's block and 2 other stories in progress. Lol, hope u liiike it!**

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Over the past three days we've been investigating the missing person's case Taylor came to us with. So far, we got nothin'. We've been checking out places a mass murdering psycho vamp might be keeping his prisoner... or her prisoner, no need to discriminate. We've been to warehouses, abandoned stores and houses, and buildings in bad neighborhoods... nothing.

We've been to the crime scene multiple times over the past few days, making sure we didn't miss anything, and so far, we have nothing new. The police haven't moved anything or cleaned up, except the bodies of course. I had a feeling that whatever we need, a clue, a sign, something, to figure out where Hayley is, it's probably on one or both of those bodies. Great.

"I think we need to check out the bodies," I suggested to Mick, who was sitting beside me shuffling through some papers. Beth wasn't here, she had a story on a bank robbery to do. "There might be something on them that'll help us find Hayley."

Mick nodded his head in agreement, thought for a second, and stood up, "C'mon, the police probably haven't solved this case yet either, and if I'm right, the bodies are still in the morgue."

A half hour later we were walking through the double doors leading into the morgue in the CSI building. We had, very discreetly, came in through a window on the bottom floor and jumped down a flight of stairs leading us right into the morgue.

It looked almost exactly like the morgue in the hospital, except this one was bigger. There was a big autopsy table in the middle of the room and 4 other tables in the back of the room lined up, 3 of which were occupied. And, because a morgue wouldn't be complete without them, 2 walls were filled with rows and rows of... those things they put bodies in.

I walked over to the 4 tables and 3 bodies in the back of the room. I suspected the 2 bodies we were looking for rested there. My suspicions were confirmed when Mick pulled back one of the sheets covering the bodies, revealing half of a man, Mr. Collins. Mick did the same to the one on the right, uncovering a woman, Mrs. Collins. I took my place next to the table the body of Mrs. Collins was on and looked up at Mick. We made an unspoken agreement to begin searching the bodies.

I pulled the off the rest of the sheet from the upper half of the body, leaving the bottom half covered. She may be dead, but I was still going to give her some dignity.

I thoroughly went over her torso and both arms twice, finding nothing. I checked under her fingernails and every inch of her hand. Still nothin'.

I noticed, for the first time, the bodies weren't ripped up anymore, like the first time I saw them. They were stitched back together and cleaned of blood.

Going back to my searching, I moved down to her legs and feet. I even checked under her toenails. Heck, I checked between her toes.

The M.E. Probably got everything, but with my vampiric eyesight, I'll find things he or she missed.

It felt like an hour before I finally got to the head. First I combed through her dark brown hair. I got nothing but dried blood. With one finger I pushed up her nose and shined a pen light in the nostrils. I had grabbed the light from a tray of things that _I_ thought were torture devices disguised as medical tools, not everyone shares my opinion. Doctors for example. Finding nothing important I pried open her mouth. I recoiled when an awful smell hit my nose, I almost puked. It smelt like death and nasty dried blood. I covered my nose and poked around, it was gross. I didn't see anything so I shut it hurriedly.

Carefully I turned her head to the right and shined the pen light into her ear. All I could see was... ear wax, ewww. I turned her head too quickly and roughly this time. I heard the sickening snap as I accidentally broke her neck. Umm, whoops.

I aimed the light into her left ear and looked carefully... Aha! I got a little bit more than ear wax this time. Yay!

I grabbed the tiny tweezers off the tray on my right and slowly inserted them into her ear to remove the unidentified object (UIO; much easier to type and less of a time consumer). I almost had it when a hand rested on my shoulder making me jump. The tweezers shoved the UIO farther into the ear and I cursed. I turned to Mick and opened my mouth to yell at him.

"Someone's coming," he said quietly, pointing towards the door. I closed my eyes and listened. Sure enough, footsteps were coming in this direction. I had been so absorbed in what I was doing that I hadn't noticed.

"Let's go," Mick urged, starting to walk towards the back door I had failed to notice earlier.

I held up an index finger, "One second."

I turned back around and set to work quickly. I eased the tweezers once more into her ear with my right hand, holding the light with my left. After a few seconds I had the UIO trapped in the tweezers and swiftly took them out of her ear and dropped the UIO into a plastic evidence bag I had grabbed from the ever so handy medical tool tray. The footsteps were only a few feet away from the door now.

I could smell the human's scent now very easily. It smelt familiar, I was sure I've smelt it before, but I have no clue who it is.

Suddenly the footsteps stopped in front of the doors and I turned to face Mick... who wasn't there. I looked around desperately for a place to hide, and ended up crouching down behind the table I was standing at.

The doors swung open and the light footsteps strode over to the autopsy table 10 feet away from me and paused. I unconsciously backed up a little and bumped into the stand that holds the tray of tools. Smoooth.

"Who's there?" A voice called out, I can vaguely recall hearing that voice once before...

I tried to think of an excuse for hiding behind a table in a morgue. An idea popped into my head and I took one of my earrings off, setting it on the ground under the table, then I stood up.

"Sorry, I was just -" I paused when I recognized Eric McKarthy, the guy from the crime scene, "-looking for my earring." I bent down, picked it up, and put it back in my ear.

"Kate?" I nodded, "What are you doing here? How did you get in?" He asked suspiciously, instinctively his hand moved to his gun.

I held my hands up, showing him I had no weapons and said, "I came here to, umm..." I tried to quickly think of something logical, but ended up spouting nonsense, "uhhh, to see you!" I finished with a big, fake grin. Great, now he's gunna think I'm a stalker.

He smiled and his hand went back to his side as I dropped mine, "How'd you get down here?"

"I get lost easily," I lied. I stepped away from the table and his eyes flickered to the uncovered bodies.

"You didn't come here to see me, did you?"

I let out a big sigh, "No, I'm sorry, I just needed to check out the bodies," I paused and added, "Are you gunna arrest me?"

Eric laughed, "No, I won't arrest you. You should have just asked me if you wanted to see the bodies."

"You allowed to do that?" I asked him raising my eyebrows.

"No... but it wouldn't hurt to let you take a quick look." He winked.

I was getting a bit uncomfortable and alternated my weight between my left and right foot. I wish Josef was here.

Eric's cell phone suddenly rang and he excused himself to take it. He left the morgue and I heard him walk to the end of the hall. I then took the opportunity and headed immediately for the back door, thinking Mick was waiting on me out there.

Suddenly there was a banging sound coming from one of the walls with the things that the bodies are in. I brushed it off as my imagination and kept walking. A louder bang sounded and I whirled around and walked over to the wall, trying to figure out which one it was coming from. After a couple more bangs I was standing in front of number 64. Ever so slowly I pulled it open, revealing a body covered with a sheet. I gripped the top of it and pulled it away, adrenaline pumping.

"Boo."

I screamed and flew backwards and landed on my butt. I stood back up to see Mick laughing hysterically.

"That was not funny!" I yelled and crossed my arms angrily.

"Yes... it... was," He said still laughing. I rolled my eyes and walked out the back door.

"Let's go before Eric comes back," I threw over my shoulder.

Mick followed me out, shutting the door behind him, still chuckling and wiping away tears from laughing so hard, "You should have seen your face. Priceless."

I hmph'd and kept walking to his car, planning revenge in my head. Oh, I will get him back.

Once we were driving he finally stopped laughing and said, "Well, I guess that was a waste of time."

"Think again, Micky." I said pulling out the evidence bag as Mick rolled his eyes at the nickname, "I got somethin'"

He squinted at it for a minute, still driving, and surprisingly didn't even swerve. Years of practice, I guess. I took the time to inspect the UIO also. It was a chip of something rough and brown-ish... it looked like wood, bark maybe?

"What is it?" Mick questioned.

I shrugged, "Iono," I thought for a second, "Let's take it to Chris."

Mick made a dangerous U-turn and headed in the direction of the lab Chris works at.

* * *

"Looks like... bark," Chris said, never taking his green eyes away from the microscope lens.

"That's what I thought it was," I said brightly.

Chris chuckled and said, "I'm pretty sure this bark is from an oak tree... a pretty freakin' old oak tree. Like, ancient."

I glanced at Mick, he was pondering this information, "How many ancient oaks are there in L.A.?" Mick asked Chris. Like he would know.

"Two." Stupid smart people.

"OK, thanks for your help, Chris! We gotta go, bye!" I waved at him and walked out the door, followed by Mick.

I could hear Chris's reply clearly from the hallway even if he yelled it or not, "You're welcome!"

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**'Kay, that's it. Review pretty please, I miss getting reviews from you guys. I'd also love if some new people reviewed pleeeease. All you have to say is 'good job!' or 'cool!' and I'm happy! Lol.**

**Oh yeah, heads up; This story is probably gunna end soon. Since I got other ones I'm writin'.**

**Peace! **


	23. Chapter 23

**Sorry I haven't updated in FOREVER, but I have 4 stories in progress and the bane of all writers: writer's block :P. This chapter is soooo short, you'll probably be angry with me for it, but I wanted to stop it there. Enjoy! Oh and review, please!**

The house we stood before was a 3 story Victorian style home with a huge porch that took up the whole front of the house. Its front yard was decorated tastefully with many different flowers and other pretty plants, but on the far right side of the yard was what we were looking for: A very tall, very old, oak tree.

"I don't think this is the right place," I told Mick, "There's so many flowers here, the smell is way too strong for a vampire to be living here or to be here for long periods of time."

Mick eyed the house over his sunglasses, "Probably, but we still need to check it out." With that he started for the porch steps.

I joined him by the door as he pressed a button framed by a pretty brass design. The doorbell sounded loudly throughout the whole house and we waited patiently.

A minute or two later the door swung open. My muscles tensed, expecting a violent vampire. I looked straight forward... and saw nothing.

"Can I help you?"

I looked down and saw an exceptionally short elderly woman eying us suspiciously. Mick and I exchanged glances, this definitely wasn't who we were looking for. I looked back down at the old woman with a brilliant smile.

"Well, I saw your beautiful yard and I simply _adore _it! I just wanted to ask you: Did you do it yourself or did you hire someone?" I asked sweetly.

She smiled proudly, "My daughter did it for me, she was a very talented gardener..."

The short old lady went on about her daughter for awhile before I finally had to tell her we were in a hurry. We bade her good-bye and hopped into Mick's car. Besides, these flowers were seriously starting to bother me.

I turned to Mick as he started the engine, "Told you so."

A half hour later we were almost to our second and final destination. We were in a neighborhood full of expensive mansions and ridiculously wealthy people; near where Josef lives actually.

I smiled to myself. Josef and I had been together for about a week and I was totally in love with him. I never thought I would be able to fall in love again after Phillip, but Josef proved me wrong.

Back to the task at hand. Chris had texted Mick the coordinates of the two ancient oak trees in Los Angeles shortly after we left and we were minutes away from the last set of coordinates.

We were getting closer and closer to Josef's mansion, and I was getting more and more worried. The vamp was so close to him, too close for comfort.

When Josef's mansion came into view, I was on the edge of my seat. _What the heck?_ There were no more houses over here besides Josef's.

The car started nearing the driveway leading to the gate which led even further onto Josef's property. I looked over a Mick, his brow was furrowed in confusion.

_Please pass Josef's house, Please pass Josef's house, Please pass Josef's house._

My mantra ended when Mick suddenly stopped the car at the driveway and stared at his GPS.

"This can't be right," he muttered.

"Why did you stop?" I asked worriedly, afraid of the answer.

He looked up at the huge mansion then at me, "We've reached our destination."

**'Kay there you go. I'm gonna leave you with a cliffie. :P I'll try to update soon though! Please review this ridiculously short chapter!**


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